Two French football stars to face trial for 'soliciting an underage prostitute'

Two french football stars are to face trial for allegedly paying an underage prostitute £1,500 for a night of sex.
Married Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema have been under investigation since 2010 in connection with the affair in which they are accused of paying Zahia Dehar, for sex in 2009 and 2008, respectively, while she was under 18-years-old.
The Moroccan-born call girl, now 19, shot to fame following the allegations and this year launched a lingerie collection at Paris Fashion Week, but insists the players did not know her age.

French midfielder Franck Ribery and team mate Karim Benzema will both stand trial accused of soliciting an underage prostitute

Ribery, 29, is alleged to have paid Dehar to fly to Germany to spend the night with him when she was 17 - below the 18-year legal age for prostitution in France.
Dehar, who is now 19, has already testified that she charged 1,500 pounds for the night.

She claimed Benzema, 24, also paid for sex with her in 2008, when she was just 16.
A third French player, 32-year-old Sidney Govou, also had sex with her in March, but she was then an adult.
Ribery and Benzema are set to play for France against Uruguay on Wednesday in a friendly international at Le Havre, the team’s first game under new coach Didier Deschamps.
The scandal gripped France ahead of the 2010 World Cup and further tarnished the image of the French squad, whose reputation was already battered by internal bickering and a 2-1 loss to South Africa.

Zahia Dehar, pictured left and right, broke her silence when the investigation was launched in 2010 and said the players were not aware of her age at the time

The players were detained as part of an investigation into an upmarket brothel on the Champs Elysee, along with seven other men including the owner of Zaman Cafe, a nightclub which was alleged to have provided clients with prostitutes who were minors, and a pimp suspected of supplying celebrities and sportsmen with prostitutes.
Dehar, who has insisted the players did not know she was a minor, told Paris Match, that the married Ribery put her on a first class flight to meet him in a five-star hotel on his 26th birthday on April 7 2009.
‘I was Ribery’s birthday present,’ she said. ‘Franck approached me in a Paris club. He booked me and flew me to Munich to celebrate his 26th birthday.
‘He made reservations at a luxury hotel in Munich. We had sex and he paid me. I was a lovely little present, wasn’t I?’

Ribery, bottom row second from the right, and Benzema, top row third from the left, pictured with the France football team last year, will represent their country against Uruguay on Wednesday

Ribery has admitted to police that he had sex with Dehar, but denied paying her or knowing she was only 17. Benzema also denies the allegation.
Investigators want to know whether he personally made her flight reservations to Munich, as this would have given him access to her date of birth via her passport details.
Ribery converted to Islam after marrying Wahiba, his childhood sweetheart and mother of his two children.
If Ribery and Benzema are convicted of soliciting and paying for sex with a minor, and knowing she was underage, they face three years in jail and a fine of 45,000 euros.