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French soccer stars quizzed in under-age sex probe

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-21 15:39

Sophie Bottai (C), lawyer of French soccer player Franck Ribery, leaves the Paris vice squad headquarters July 20, 2010. [Agencies]

PARIS - French police questioned soccer internationals Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema on Tuesday as part of an investigation into an alleged under-age prostitution ring, a legal source said.

The footballers were detained at the request of an investigating magistrate probing allegations that a Champs Elysees nightclub provided clients access to minors working as call girls, the source close to the inquiry said.

One of the young women who is alleged to have met clients at the club had already testified to investigators earlier in the year she had relations with the two players when she was under age.

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If they are charged and convicted of soliciting and paying for sex with a minor, the pair faces three years in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros ($58,000), but only if it is proved they knew she was under-age.

A grim-faced Ribery arrived at the headquarters of the Paris vice squad with an acquaintance but refused to answer questions from reporters.

Boulogne-born 27-year-old midfielder Ribery plays for Bayern Munich in Germany and was a member of France's ill-fated squad at this month's World Cup in South Africa.

Real Madrid striker Benzema is only 22, but missed out on this year's French team, despite playing in much of the World Cup qualifying campaign.

Ribery has previously confirmed to police he had sex with the young woman, but insists he did not know she was a minor. Benzema has not publicly addressed the allegations.

The young woman, Zahia Dehar, is now 18 year and four months old. She has been questioned by police and gave a tell-all interview to the news and gossip weekly Paris Match after the scandal erupted.

She described selling sexual encounters to Ribery in 2009 and to Benzema in 2008, while she was under-age, and with a third French player, 30-year-old Panathinaikos winger Sidney Govou, in March, when she was an adult.

Agence France-Presse