The 2002 world champion and 2005 Ballon d'Or Ronaldinho spent the night from Friday to Saturday in pretrial detention. The former Brazilian football star and his brother Roberto were arrested in Asuncion at the request of the Attorney General of Paraguay.

Accusing the former player of FC Barcelona, ​​AC Milan and Paris SG of having used a false identity document, the prosecution announced on its Twitter account that it had issued an arrest warrant and requested the arrest provisional detention of the winner of the 2002 World Cup.

Ronaldinho and his brother were arrested and "placed at the disposal of the public prosecutor", underlined the parquet floor. They will be interrogated on Saturday.

Earlier today, Ronaldinho and his brother had to explain themselves to a judge. After a seven-hour interrogation, they had left the magistrate's office free. When he left the courthouse, Ronaldinho was assaulted by a cohort of journalists, but the player with 97 selections remained silent, refusing to answer questions.

Less than two hours later, Ronaldinho and his brother were boarding a police van to be escorted to the national police headquarters. An incomprehensible development for the Paraguayan lawyer for the two men, Adolfo Marin. "We do not know on what basis they were arrested," he told reporters.

Before their arrest, the prosecutor initially in charge of the file had estimated him that the two brothers had been "deceived", ensuring that they would not be prosecuted for entering Paraguay with false passports. This prosecutor had requested that the charges against the two Brazilians be dropped "with the condition that they admit to having committed the offense of which they are accused, that is to say the possession of false documents".

"The information provided is very useful in dismantling a criminal gang specializing in the preparation of false documents," he said.

False passports?

The falsified documents were detected on the arrival of Ronaldinho and his brother at Asuncion airport. But, according to their lawyer who disputes the version of the prosecution, the footballer did not present a false passport on his arrival. The latter "did not need to use any other document than his own," said the lawyer, also assuring that his client was not subject to any travel restrictions abroad.

Paraguayan police searched the hotel where Ronaldinho came to Asuncion to promote a book. Investigators discovered false passports made in the Paraguayan capital a few months ago, according to Interior Minister Euclides Acevedo.

According to a police official, Gilberto Fleitas, Ronaldinho received these false passports from the hands of the Brazilian agent Wilmondes Sousa Lira, who was arrested. Two Paraguayan nationals, Maria Isabel Gayoso and Esperanza Apolonia Caballer, were also arrested in connection with the same case.

At the end of 2018, Brazilian justice had deprived Ronaldinho of a passport, following his conviction of a fine of 2.5 million dollars (around 2.25 million euros). Accused of having built a jetty without authorization on the edge of a lake in a protected area, he never paid the fine, according to Brazilian media.

With AFP

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