Karim Benzema strikes back.
The French football star has filed a defamation lawsuit against Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, after the politician claimed he was “notoriously linked” to the Muslim Brotherhood.
According to the lawsuit, seen by French news agency AFP late on Monday, Benzema says he “never had the slightest connection with the Muslim Brotherhood organization, nor to [my] knowledge with anyone who claims to be a member of it,” and alleges he has been “instrumentalized in political games” because of his fame.
Darmanin, who is currently in Réunion as the French overseas territory recovers from a cyclone, has not yet commented on the complaint.
In October, Darmanin caused a storm by claiming that the 2022 Golden Ball winner had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist party which some Middle Eastern countries consider to be a terrorist group.
“Benzema is notoriously linked with the Muslim Brotherhood, we all know it,” the French minister said in an interview on French conservative TV broadcaster CNews, without providing evidence to back his claims.
Darmanin, who is a longtime hard-liner on security issues and secularism, later doubled down on the accusations, saying Benzema had “made the extremely selective choice of using the same discourse as the Muslim Brotherhood” on social media.
The 36-year-old French striker, who plays for the Saudi-based Al-Ittihad football club, is a practicing Muslim who observes fasting during Ramadan and at times displays his faith on social media.
In comments to French radio broadcaster RTL, Benzema’s lawyer, Hugues Vigier, said the former Real Madrid star was targeted by “a false communication stunt.”
Darmanin’s comments are “sowing division in France, with lots of people who don’t understand this kind of talk, some who exclude Karim Benzema and some who feel excluded by what’s being said about him,” the lawyer added.