By Canadian Press

Handcuffed Ronaldinho and brother appear in Paraguayan court

Mar 7, 2020 | 7:42 AM

ASUNCION, Paraguay — Former soccer star Ronaldinho and his brother were taken in handcuffs to a courthouse in Paraguay on Saturday following their arrest for allegedly entering the country with falsified documents.

Prosecutors are seeking to extend the detention of 39-year-old Ronaldinho and brother Roberto Assis, while defence lawyer Sérgio Queiroz says they should be freed because they are not a threat or flight risk.

The Brazilian brothers were arrested Friday night in a hotel in Asunción, Paraguay’s capital.

Queiroz had said Ronaldinho, the 2002 World Cup winner and former Barcelona star, was preparing to take a flight back to Rio de Janeiro, where he lives, shortly before the arrests.

Ronaldinho and Assis had said they went to Asunción for business reasons.

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The former footballer and his brother said the documents were offered as a gift by a Brazilian businessman, Wilmondes Sousa Liria, who has been jailed.

Last year, a Brazilian court upheld a decision to seize the passports of Ronaldinho and his brother because of a lawsuit over alleged environmental crimes. The suit was related to the illegal construction of a fishing platform and a berth on the shores of the Guaiba river in Ronaldinho’s hometown of Porto Alegre.

The Associated Press