BRAZILIAN football great Ronaldinho will remain in pretrial detention in Paraguay after being refused bail or house arrest on accusations of entering the country on a fake passport.

A court rejected a request for the conditional release of the 39-year-old World Cup winner and his brother, who are spending a fifth day in a police cell in Asuncion, said prosecutor Osmar Legal.

Judge Gustavo Amarilla cited the seriousness of the case and the discovery of new evidence, as well as the involvement of public officials and entrepreneurs who helped Ronaldinho get into Paraguay.

He acknowledged the harshness of the measures taken against the brothers, but said it is his responsibility to ensure that they do not flee the country.

“There are many procedures that need to be done with the presence of both of them.”

Legal said he opposed house arrest because the property offered as a guarantee is valued at only $750,000 to $800,000 (RM3.2 million to RM3.4 million).

“It’s a tiny amount given the economic solvency of one of the (accused).”

The brothers arrived in Asuncion from Brazil last Wednesday and showed their passports to immigration police, who did not immediately notice any problem.

Hours later, when the passports were determined to be fake, investigators raided the football star’s hotel room and seized the brothers’ identity cards and travel documents.

‘No crime’

Ronaldinho said the passports were given to him by people who had invited him to attend conferences sponsored by charities working with disadvantaged children.

A Brazilian businessman has also been arrested in connection with the fake travel documents, while two Paraguayan women have been placed under house arrest and the country’s migration director has resigned.

Ronaldinho’s Brazilian lawyer, Sergio Queiroz, has said the brothers were carrying Brazilian documents and given the Paraguayan passports “to facilitate the possibility of doing business” in the country.

“Ronaldinho did not commit a crime because he did not know that the passport they gave him was fake.”

However, the body overseeing the creation of companies in Paraguay told AFP that there is no regulation preventing Brazilians from applying for a business permit.

The administrator of the charity that invited Ronaldinho, Dalia Lopez, has admitted to requesting the passports, but said she did not know they were forged.

A warrant has been issued for her arrest.

Money-laundering

Amarilla said the investigation is looking into possible criminal association and money-laundering.

He said the brothers’ phones need to be examined in order to “know the true intention for their presence” in Paraguay.

Ronaldinho, considered one of the greatest footballers of all time, was a star of Brazil’s 2002 World Cup win, and played for European giants Barcelona, Paris St-Germain and AC Milan, among others.

There had been rumours that he needed to use the Paraguayan document because his real passport was seized by Brazilian authorities in late 2018 after he failed to pay a US$2.5 million fine for building a pier at a protected lake.

But, it was returned to him a year later following an agreement with the public prosecutor in Rio Grande do Sul state.

As both countries are part of the Mercosur trade bloc, travellers between Brazil and Paraguay need only carry an identity document rather than a passport. – AFP, March 11, 2020.