JUDGE: When did you saw Karim Zenati?
KB: I do not remember exactly, but it was before the game France-Armenia.
JUDGE: Then you say to Mr. Valbuena, "I said seriously, I told him frankly, I saw it myself, the video, I told him." Have you seen the video?
K. B.: No I have not seen it.
JUDGE: Why did you say you did then?
KB: Frankly I do not know why I said that. The video, I did not see it. Since Karim told me that it was a serious video, that's what I told Mathieu. I made a movie in my head (he means he envisioned it in his mind) with what Karim told me, because I trust him and he is my best friend.
JUDGE: Do you think Karim Zenati saw the video?
KB: I think he saw it, because he spoke to me with details about it.
JUDGE: What kind of details did he gave you?
KB: That Mathieu could be seen in it, that it was a porn video, clearly sexual, and that he was filming himself.
JUDGE: You repeated, "he said yeah where did you saw it? I said, the video, I saw it one week before coming, I told him that I had seen the video. After he asked me questions, like yeah, but how was it? ... uh ... where was it shot bro'?, I saw him swallow sideways (french expression meaning a highly unpleasant feeling) he began to swallow two, three times through. " Mr. Zenati laughs. What do you have to say?
KB: As I said on the phone, this is an abuse (meaning it was over the top). I'm not going for the same head trip. It's just that Mathieu was uncomfortable, severely uncomfortable. I do not know why we laughed like that, because it's not right. The video, I did not see it. I said that I had seen it, but this is not true. I made a movie about it in my head, and voilà.
JUDGE: Is this really a friendly advice to lie about the existence of a video and therefore giving credit to the blackmail put in place?
K. B.: No, that's not it. I do not know how to explain this to you. We're football players. I know him, for a long time. What happened, it's a rotten thing, it's whatever. I know him in the France team, we are often together. There was a story in 2012, and I defended him. Afterwards, as I mentioned on the phone, it's not good. He is someone I like. It was only for help, I had nothing else behind my mind, blackmail nor money. Money I have plenty. I do not need money. My friend Karim neither. I give him money, he was employed in my company. After that, on the phone we've been we pushed it too far. I regret to have spoken in this way, because it's not right.
JUDGE: You say you told Valbuena to get in touch with your friend: "there's no intermediary, no lawyer, no friend, no agent, no police, no one you can think of. Why such an advice?
K.B.: I'm talking rather about myself there. I didn't want my name to come out, like it did later. It was rather for myself that I was saying that.
JUDGE: You proceed: "I told him, if you want the video to be destroyed, my friend will get in touch with you in Lyon, you take care of that directly with him, you speak directly with him, I told him, you send nobody else." What do you have to say?
K.B.: Because it concerns him. He does as he wants to, but this is just my advice. He does as he wants. I told him my friend was in Lyon. But at the end of each sentence I said to Mathieu: "You do as you want". But I didn't say it on the phone.
JUDGE: You mentioned with Valbuena the fact that they would ask him for money only: "I told him, I know nothing about what they want, I told him, I don't know, he told me, he wants money, well [know what I'm sayin']." What do you have to say?
K..B: Mathieu asked me about what they wanted. I told him I didn't know. But to me they had asked for money. But they can ask for anything and everything, I don't know. But I think that when there's a video like this what these people want is money.
JUDGE: Do you really think your friend's intervention was "free of charge"?
K.B.: Of course. To me yes, because he is short of nothing in life. That's why I don't get this blackmail and money story. I repeat, he really is short of nothing in life. That's what I was thinking, and so was my friend I think. Besides that, his other acquaintances... but he is short of nothing. I succeeded in life. I share it with him, because he's my friend since he was a kid.
JUDGE: After this briefing of your meeting with Mr. Zenati, what relationship did you had with him?
KB: We've had no more contact, because I got injured and I returned to Madrid. We have not spoken about that after. We talked a little about football and we talked about everything, but not that. I do not remember mentioning anything else about Mathieu or the video.
JUDGE: On October 19, 2015, telephone conversation number 29, you seem very concerned about your name coming up, and you qualify Mr. Valbuena "faggot" (tarlouze in french). You set up a strategy to address the rumours in the press. Why such fear while you are particularly exposed to the press?
KB: I was not worried, but rather flustered. I was just upset. It is those who care for my communication who found this sentence. Now I have a family, I get mad when people invent stories. If I had been heard, no problem, but then I had not even been heard and in the press, I am told that I am part of a blackmail. Obviously, I'm pissed. I thought he [Valbuena] went to report me to the police, while I went to see him. After "faggot", you can say it to everyone, to your friends, to your buddies. For me, for the new generation it is friendly. It is not a matter of being worried or I do not know what, it's just upset. Again, I am in the press, again talking about me. That's why I used that word.
JUDGE: Precisely when speaking ill of you in the press, you always use a communications consultant?
KB: Yes, I have someone who takes care of my Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. He works in my company. I pay monthly invoice.
JUDGE: What are your true relationship with Mr. Valbuena?
KB: He's a good friend of mine, we are often together in the France team, we are often kidding, we get along well.
JUDGE: You see each other outside team meetings for France?
K. B. No, I'm in Madrid. I see him in the France team and I met him on holiday twice.
JUDGE: Would you add anything?
KB: I'm really disappointed with the magnitude of this story, because blackmail, stuff like that, frankly it's serious. Even for my friend Karim Zenati. I did everything so that he could come out of jail, everything so that he would have a better path in life, he works for me. And then to end up with a story like that, with a player of my team that I like, I'm disappointed. When I spoke on the phone, we laughed, we did not understood the scale of this thing, and it all falls back on me again. Frankly, it pisses me off for my friend. Frankly, I'm pissed.