Karim Benzema sues French minister over Muslim Brotherhood allegations

Benzema’s lawyer Hugues Vigier told RTL radio on Tuesday that the player was a victim of “political exploitation” with considerable consequences to his family.

Karim Benzema (Peter Byrne/PA)

Football star Karim Benzema has filed a defamation lawsuit against France’s interior minister who accused him of having links to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Gerald Darmanin said in October that Benzema had “a notorious link” to the Brotherhood — a pan-Arab Islamist group which came to power in Egypt following elections a year after the 2011 popular uprising — because the French international striker had posted a message of support online for the people of Gaza early in the Israel-Hamas war.