London, Oct. 23 (ANI): A top-notch prostitution ring supplied women to wealthy Middle Eastern clients at the Cannes Film Festival and had ties with the Gaddafi family, a French court has heard during a trial.
Seven men and a woman went on trial in the southern port city of Marseille, but five chief figures of the group are on the run and are being tried despite their absence.
The three who turned up in court were an alleged escort girl from Cannes, Sabrina Samari, who has admitted to procuring women, a Venezuelan named Felix Farias who worked for a branch of Nahas's agency and a Lebanese driver, Antoine El Khoury, the Telegraph reports.
According to the paper, Nahas is accused of organising a birthday party for Mutassim Gaddafi, the son of slain Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, which allegedly cost around 1.1 million euros with several stars and about 20 models in attendance. Mutassim was killed with his father on October 20 last year.
Farias has been accused of causing a scandal in 2007 when he turned up at Paris's Charles de Gaulle airport with eight young women, one of whom was a minor, to attend the Cannes Film Festival. They were due to stay on a 136-metre-long luxury yacht, La Savarona, which had been rented for 350,000 euros a week. However, they were refused entry, the paper said.
Wiretapped telephone conversations from the time showed the involvement of four Lebanese nationals, a Venezuelan and two escort girls from Cannes in an alleged prostitution ring, whose clients were rich men from the Middle East, the paper added. (ANI)
