Ronaldinho Gaucho and his brother are free to return to his native Brazil after serving five months in detention in Paraguay.
Ronaldinho and his brother, Roberto Assis, were both arrested Paraguay in early March for allegedly using fake passports to gain entry into the country.
The pair traveled to Paraguay to promote a campaign aimed at helping underprivileged children. However, they spent the following five months protesting their innocence instead.
The local authorities forced them to spend 32 days inside the maximum-security Agrupacion Especializada prison after detaining them at the Resort Yacht and Golf Club Paraguay. Ronaldinho even spent his 40th birthday behind bars.
Things got so bad that the brothers were faced with the prospect of a five-year jail sentence if found guilty.
In April, however, Ronaldinho and Assis’ lawyers paid a $1.6m bail to put them under house arrest in a luxury hotel in Asuncion until the trial began.
📺 [TV3🥇] | Ronaldinho, released after almost six months of house arrest in Paraguay pic.twitter.com/V7s8mzSxoS
— BarçaTimes (@BarcaTimes) August 24, 2020
It’s alleged that the Paraguayan prosecutors felt Assis was the only one who had a role in obtaining the fake passports, which explains their decision to hand only him a criminal record.
Ronaldinho may have pleaded guilty to entering the country with false identification, but prosecutors just fined him for $90,000. Assis, on the other hand, has a $110,000 fine and a criminal record in Paraguay.
“The precautionary measure of arrest is lifted, there are no more restrictions placed by Paraguayan justice,” announced Judge Gustavo Amarilla on Monday as quoted by the BBC.
Ronaldinho may now return to Brazil and leave as long as the former Barcelona star informs officials beforehand and states the duration of his time out of the country, according to reports.
But Assis won’t be able to leave Brazil for the next two years and must regularly present himself to authorities in Rio de Janeiro.
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