获取请求时URL中的意外html实体

I have a curl app using http post/get requests on my web service. Now, take a look at this request:

http://www.myws.com/index.php?&param=12345

The &para is this symbol: ¶. And i wonder if maybe this is why my request is not working. My request looks like this:

$url = 'http://www.myws.com/index.php?&param=12345';

//if i print $url i see the ¶ instead of &param
//I tried with index.php?&param=12345 and i can see it "ok" on my screen 
//but the request is not working.

curl_setopt($this->ch, CURLOPT_POST, false);
curl_setopt($this->ch, CURLOPT_TIMEOUT, 300);
curl_setopt($this->ch, CURLOPT_URL, $url );
$html = curl_exec($this->ch);

I always get a redirect to the main website because that request doesnt exists.

How can i fix this? How can i see the "requested url" by curl?

Try to set the internal encoding to UTF-8? It sounds like an encoding problem

mb_internal_encoding("UTF-8");