Hugh Grant?
Posted on 04/23/2004 9:00:49 PM PDT by ijcr
The French prime minister's influential and respected chief communications adviser has resigned after being found by the Paris vice squad with an underage Romanian prostitute in his car.
Dominique Ambiel, a successful television producer who was appointed as Jean-Pierre Raffarin's personal spin doctor in 2002, will appear in court on June 7, charged with "soliciting, accepting or obtaining ... sexual relations with a minor engaged in prostitution", as well as with insulting the police, justice officials said yesterday.
Mr Ambiel, 49, who is regarded as a workaholic with media contacts that are second to none, brought successful Gallic versions of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? and Survivor to French TV before joining the prime minister's private office and apparently becoming his closest and most trusted adviser.
The case is a serious one even in a country that has long chosen to ignore the private lives of its leaders.
Under tough new prostitution laws introduced last year to combat the exploitation of young eastern European women, Mr Ambiel faces up to three years in jail and a fine of €45,000 (£30,000) if convicted.
Mr Raffarin's office said yesterday that it had accepted his resignation.
The arrest comes as a fresh blow to the prime minister, whose personal approval rating has slumped to an all-time low of barely 30% and whose authority has been badly undermined by the right's humiliating defeat last month in regional elections.
Mr Ambiel sent a statement to the daily newspaper Le Monde in which he admitted to a "lively exchange" with the arresting officers. He reportedly demanded their identities, said he did not need to pay €150 for sex, and warned them that he worked with the prime minister and was "all too aware" of the prescriptions of the new law.
He described the other charges as "lies, defamation, a manipulation even".
His statement continued: "Out of respect for the prime minister, I decided to bring forward my departure from his office by a few weeks, so as to be able to express myself freely about any malicious allegations that could result from this incident."
Police allege that Mr Ambiel was stopped late on Monday night with a 17-year-old Romanian prostitute in his car. In evidence, she told investigators that she knew Mr Ambiel well because the two had met two or three times the previous week.
He had taken her to a hotel room paid for with a credit card, she said.
Mr Ambiel disputes this. He told Le Monde that he left the prime minister's Matignon residence at 2am, but forgot a file that he needed for a meeting the next morning. He was returning to collect it, he said, when he saw two prostitutes fighting in a bus shelter.
One of the girls jumped into his car while it was stopped at a traffic light, he said. For her own safety, he said, he drove her "for two minutes and about 300 yards" before letting her out of the car.
It was at this moment that the vice squad appeared in an unmarked car.
I don't get the 300 yards part.
Snicker, I thought that this would be a badge of honor in France.
Ahhh.. the old "she jumped im my car at 2AM" story.
Never worked for me either.
I don't get the 300 yards part.
Well, it's hard to drive very fast when you're...
Hugh Grant?
His car was going Real Slooooow. Must have been something wrong with the stick shift.
More than one jury has broken out in laughter at the exotic "explanations" offered by these pedophiles.
hehehe
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