Ronaldinho Gains Freedom after 5-Months
Former Barcelona and AC Milan Legend Ronaldinho have been released from the police custody after five months, the legendary football player was released alongside his elder brother, Roberto de Assis Moreira, on Monday by the Paraguayan police following the orders of the judge after spending five months in detention over a forged passport.
The 40-year-old former World Cup winner “is free to travel to whatever country in the world he wants but he must inform us if he changes his permanent residence” for a period of one year, the Judge Gustavo Amarilla said. The judge also said: “He has no restrictions except for the fulfilment of reparations for damage to society.”
The Brazilian accepted the terms of his release, which include payment of $90,000 in damages. His brother, who is also Ronaldinho’s business manager, must pay $110,000. Judge Amarilla stressed that he was not issuing a “definitive dismissal” of the case but rather that Ronaldinho was benefitting from a “conditional suspension of the procedure.”
His brother, on the other hand, was given a two-year suspended sentence. Prosecutors said they did not believe Ronaldinho took part in the plan to manufacture the fake Paraguayan passports but believed de Assis Moreira was aware that the passports were false.
“Ronaldinho’s situation is not the same as Roberto’s. He has no obligation to appear before any Brazilian judicial authority. He must only report a change of address,” said Amarilla, who accepted a recommendation by four prosecutors to avoid the need for an oral trial. Before Monday’s trial, the public prosecutor said that he displayed no “personal characteristics or criminal behaviour that would put society at risk.”