A Paraguayan judge ended the house arrest of former Barcelona player Ronaldinho Gaucho on Monday. This freed him to return to Brazil and end a more than five-month ordeal. The ordeal began when he tried to enter the country with an adulterated passport.
A judge in Asuncion agreed to a “conditional suspension” of charges. This effectively cleared the player of any responsibility for the crime, with an order of paying $90,000 in costs. Charitable organisations would receive the amount.
“The precautionary measure of arrest is lifted, there are no more restrictions placed by Paraguayan justice,” Judge Gustavo Amarilla told the court.
Ronaldinho plans to leave Paraguay for Rio de Janeiro on Tuesday morning on a private plane, as per sources.
The striker was arrested on March 6, along with his brother and business manager Roberto Assis. They were held in jail for 32 days before being released into house arrest. They were under house arrest in a top Asuncion hotel and paid $1.6 million in bail.
According to documents seen by Reuters, prosecutors in the case said they found “no elements to prove that (Ronaldinho) directly participated in obtaining the irregular documents.”
The brothers have repeatedly maintained their innocence with their lawyer calling their detention “arbitrary, abusive and illegal.”