Belo Horizonte (Brazil) (AFP)

The Brazilian justice released on Tuesday conditional Earvin Ngapeth, star of the French volleyball team, who had been arrested the day before in Belo Horizonte (southern Brazil), accused of sexual harassment, but the volleyball evokes a "misunderstanding" .

Judge Fabiana Cardoso Gomes ordered the payment of a bail of 10,000 euros, the prosecution has not asked for his continued detention, told AFP the Brazilian lawyer volleyball, Dino Miraglia.

The player must return to Europe in the next hours. The public prosecutor will have to decide whether he will bring him to justice or whether he will dismiss the case.

According to the complaint, Ngapeth, 28, spanked a 29-year-old woman in a theater. The woman was accompanied by her companion and a friend. She responded by striking the player's arm and called the police, who then transferred the volleyball player and the complainant to a police station.

According to the police, the sportsman acknowledged the facts and apologized, explaining that he had confused the victim with a friend and that "in France, touching a woman's butt was not an assault or an offense".

Earvin Ngapeth is one of the leaders of the French volleyball team. He was last week in Betim, on the outskirts of Belo Horizonte for the World Club with Zenit Kazan, one of the best teams in the world, taking third place in the competition. The Russian club is scheduled to play a Champions League match on Wednesday in Belgium, in Maaseik.

The volleyball player has already dealt with the law several times in the past. He was sentenced in 2016 to three months in prison suspended for striking a controller of the SNCF, before being released on appeal in March 2018. He was also released in June 2017 in another case, dating back to 2013 , for a fight in nightclub in Montpellier.

prb / tup / dhe

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