Ronaldinho Gaucho He suffered a judicial setback on Friday after rejecting an appeal that he filed to take advantage of a shortened exit in the case that he faces due to the use of a false Paraguayan passport upon arrival in the country, last March.
The Fourth Chamber Court of Appeal rejected this benefit, thus confirming the decision of the criminal guarantees judge, Mirko Valinotti, who on March 6 denied an initial request from the Prosecutor's Office to Ronaldinho and his brother Roberto were favored by the “opportunity criteria”.
The Chamber, made up of Arnulfo Arias, Carlos Ortiz Barrios and Emiliano Rolón Fernández, declared the action of the lawyers of the former Barcelona player, PSG and Milan, “inadmissible,” according to judicial sources cited by local media.
The decision of Valinotti, based on the commission of an alleged punishable act, was appealed by the defense of the De Assis Moreira brothers before a higher court that, finally, ruled this Friday four months later.
And on March 7, another judge of guarantees, Clara Ruiz Díaz, ordered the preventive detention of Ronaldinho and his brother in an Asunción police detention center that houses politicians prosecuted for corruption and inmates with drug trafficking causes after a rectification by the Prosecutor's Office.
They were housed there until the night of April 7, when they were transferred to a hotel in the capital where they remain after being favored by a home prison by paying a bond of $ 1.6 million.
They are in police custody and banned from leaving Paraguay for the alleged crime of “use of public documents with false content”, with an expectation of up to five years.
The De Assis Moreira served four months of imprisonment in Paraguay last day 7 and this latest resolution adds uncertainty to their case, which had erupted with several arrests and more than a dozen defendants, although currently there are no longer any accused behind bars.
The last beneficiary of the measures to substitute for the prison was the also Brazilian Wilmondes Sousa, indicated as the contact of the De Assis Moreira brothers with the Paraguayan businesswoman Dalia López, manager of the arrival in the country of the former soccer player.
Sousa regained his freedom on June 17 and is also in a hotel in the capital in a house prison imposed by an appeals court, while López remains unaccounted for from day one.
López, on whom an international search and arrest warrant weighs, received Ronaldinho and Roberto on March 4 at the Asunción airport, who left Brazil with passports from their country and exhibited the allegedly false ones to local authorities.
Ronaldinho came to Paraguay to support with his image a project to help children promoted by López through the foundation she chaired, in addition to participating in the opening of a casino.
The Prosecutor's Office points to López as the alleged head of a network dedicated to “facilitating the preparation and use of false identity documents and passports.”
The scandal has splashed officials from the Migration Directorate and the Identifications Department, which issues passports and identity cards, as well as the authority of the Asunción International Airport.