Under-age sex case deepens star's woes after World Cup flop

France football star Franck Ribery has been placed under formal investigation for soliciting paid sex with a 17-year-old call girl.

Ribery, 27, appeared before an investigating magistrate - a step short of a formal charge - after being questioned by vice-squad detectives in Paris for most of the day.

Another France international, Karim Benzema, 22, and the brother of Ribery's wife, Wahiba, were also placed under investigation.

Although it is far from certain the case will go to trial, the investigation will further blacken the reputation of a France international team which performed, and behaved, so woefully at the South Africa World Cup.

Ribery, who plays for Bayern Munich, and Benzema, of Real Madrid, have been suspected since April of paying for sex with a girl called Zahia Dehar before she reached the "legal" age of prostitution.

Under French law, prostitution is legal but pimping is not. Prostitutes must be over 18 and clients can be prosecuted if they knowingly offer to pay for sex with girls below that age.

The Moroccan-born Dehar, who has become a star of French glossy magazines since the story broke in April, has repeatedly told journalists her footballing clients were unaware of her age. In press interviews, she has confusingly denied that she is a prostitute but admitted accepting money to have sex with wealthy men, including three France internationals.

She was first questioned by the Paris vice squad as part of a wider investigation into a bar suspected of providing call girls for sports and showbusiness celebrities.

Dehar told police that Ribery, who is married with two children, flew her to a luxury hotel in Munich in April last year as a present to himself for his 26th birthday. She was then 17 years and two months old.

Ribery and Benzema could face up to three years in prison and a €55,000 ($98,951) fine if found guilty of paying to have sex with a minor. But the burden of proof would rest on the prosecution to show the pair knew - or should have known - the girl was under 18.

Ribery's lawyer, Sophie Bottai, said yesterday: "It is the kind of offence [where intention has to be shown]. He would have to know her age, which wasn't the case. She would have to look minor, which wasn't the case. She would have to tell him she was minor, which wasn't the case. All over the press, she has [since] claimed that she [said] she was adult and that she was more than 20 years old."

Ribery and Benzema presented themselves for questioning yesterday before being taken, in handcuffs, to the Palais de Justice to appear before an investigating magistrate, Andre Dando. He is looking into allegations of high-class pimping for celebrity clients at the Zaman Cafe, off the Champs-Elysees. It has now been closed down.

Under French law, an investigating magistrate is supposed to assemble the evidence before recommending whether a charge should be brought. This process can sometimes take years.

Ribery, a converted Muslim from a poor white family in Boulogne-sur-Mer, was one of the most popular people in France before the scandal broke. His reputation was further damaged at the World Cup, when Les Bleus were eliminated in the first round without winning a match and after scoring only one goal.

Benzema, once seen as the rising star of French football, was not selected after a poor first season in Madrid.

Dehar is reported to have told investigators she first had sex with Benzema for money in 2008, when she was 16. She also said she had sex with Ribery three times.

Another France international, Sidney Govou, who transferred from Lyons to Panathinaikos in Athens, is also alleged to have paid for sex with Dehar, but after her 18th birthday. Hatem Ben Arfa of Olympique Marseille has been questioned as a witness.

- INDEPENDENT