The 27-year-old Real Madrid striker arrested by judicial police in Versailles over a sex tape blackmail plot against fellow France international Mathieu Valbuena.
The Versailles prosecutor has placed Benzema under formal criminal investigation, with a source close to the case saying: 'We can confirm that he is being questioned over his role in this affair.'
French football star is linked with a plot to extort money from Valbuena. Other arrests have been made in the Bouches-du-Rhone and Oise departments of France.
Valbuena, the 31-year-old Lyon midfielder who has also been linked with a number of Premiership clubs, was asked for money in return for the tape not being published, it is alleged.
Investigators are trying determine the extent to which Benzema was aware of the intimate video featuring Valbuena, which found its way into the hands of blackmailers.
According to a source, Benzema mentioned the sextape to Valbuena during a meeting of the French team in early October, AFP reported.
Police are seeking to determine whether he was teasing Valbuena when he mentioned the tape, or trying to make him pay the blackmailers.
Last month, Djibril Cisse, the former Liverpool, Sunderland, and Queens Park Rangers striker was arrested over the same plot, but later released without charge.
The case relates to a judicial investigation opened in July under the orders of a judge sitting in Versailles, west of Paris.
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