Beyza Binnur Donmez
March 09, 2020•Update: March 10, 2020
ANKARA
The first photo of former Brazilian football legend Ronaldinho in a Paraguayan jail was released Monday following his arrest for using a fake passport.
The investigation started Wednesday night when police found two fake passports, in Ronaldinho and his brother Assis's names, during their hotel room search. Passports were showing the brothers as citizens of Paraguay.
The first photo of the two-time FIFA Player of the Year in prison was posted by a Paraguayan journalist, Hernan Rodriguez, on Twitter.
Following the court's "risk of flight" ruling, the pair were transferred Saturday to a prison in the capital Asuncion where they may stay up to six months behind bars while the criminal probe continues.
"The courts have not taken into account the fact that Ronaldinho didn’t know he was committing a crime, because he didn’t understand he had been given false documents. He is stupid," Ronaldinho's lawyer Adolfo Marin told Brazilian newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo in an interview.
Ronaldinho and his brother may pass through immigration controls without any setback as Brazilian citizens do not require a passport to enter Paraguay.
The Brazilian star was in Paraguay to take part in a social responsibility project.
The tourism ambassador of Brazil, Ronaldinho, was there also to promote his book, Genio En La Vida (Genius in Life).
Last September, brothers recovered their passports after paying a million-dollar fine for doing construction without environmental permits, ending a 10-month foreign travel ban.
