Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema could go to prison for prostitution scandal

French forward Karim Benzema (R) and his French teammate Franck Ribery to go on trial in Paris today.

Ballon d’Or nominee Franck Ribery and Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema could both be facing up to three years of prison time along with fines of up to 45,000 euros (almost around ? 37 lakh) as their trial of being charged with sexual involvement with an under-age prostitute is due to begin in Paris.

The incident that took almost five years back had the Bayern Munich winger admitting to have had sex Zahia Dehar after she was flown to Munich in 2009 as a bitrhday gift to the Frenchman on his 26th birthday. However, Ribery maintained that he had no idea that she was not 18 at the time.

Karim Benzema has meanwhile denied all the accusations stating that he was not involved. Paying for sex with anyone under 18 is a crime punishable by law in France even though the age of consent is 15.

Carlo Alberto Brusa, Ribery’s defence counsel revealed that his client is not going to attend the trial but looked confident as ex-prostitute Zahia had already stated in the past that they had Ribery believe that she was already an adult.

“We are going in confident and we are going to fight,” he said as quoted on BBC.

Zahia, who now works as a lingerie designer, has withdrawn as a civil plaintiff in the case.

“She is not asking for anything,” her lawyer, Daniel Vaconsin told the press.