Barcelona (AFP) – After years of a complex legal saga, the trial for the signing of Neymar to FC Barcelona in 2013 was seen for sentencing this Monday, with a more favorable horizon for the accused after the Prosecutor’s Office surprised on Friday by withdrawing all their charges.
Pointed out only now by the private prosecution brought by the Brazilian DIS fund, neither “Ney” nor his father wanted to add anything in the last speaking turn of this media trial for corruption and fraud held at the Barcelona Court.
Connected by videoconference, wearing a dark jersey and large white headphones, the Paris Saint-Germain striker replied “no, thank you”, to the question of the president of the court, who had authorized him to intervene remotely, about whether he wanted to add something to his statement two weeks ago.
Only the former presidents of Barça, Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, also accused, made a brief intervention from the room to reiterate their innocence before the case was declared seen for sentencing.
The magistrates will now deliberate their decision, which could take weeks.
With less than a month to go before the World Cup in Qatar, the horizon looks clear for the leader of the greenyellow -whom the Public Ministry initially asked for two years in prison and a fine of 10 million euros (9.96 million dollars), for corruption in business-, after the prosecutor turned the case on Friday.
Feeling cheated in the controversial transfer, DIS, owner of 40% of Neymar’s rights when he was a Santos promise, filed a lawsuit in 2015 before the Spanish justice system.
But the company has not been able to support its accusations during the process, in the eyes of the Prosecutor’s Office, which considered that these were not based on evidence, but on “assumptions.”
“DIS has a perfect right to understand that the transfer of Neymar had to bring him a greater benefit, but I think he has erred in the jurisdiction,” said prosecutor Luis García, contradicting the accusation made by his colleagues in Madrid, where the investigation began .
“bad faith”
Despite the fact that the turn of the Public Ministry does not determine the final decision, it does considerably weaken the indictment, now only in the hands of DIS, thanks to the fact that the Spanish legal system allows the alleged victim of a crime to appear as an accuser in a process.
The Brazilian fund ended up also lowering its requests for Neymar to two years and six months in prison, from the five it initially requested, although it reiterated that the defendants, except for the soccer player’s mother, had committed crimes that should be punished.
“Neymar has defrauded the legitimate owners of a very significant part of his investment,” Eliseo Martínez, a lawyer for the Brazilian company, argued on Monday. “Not everything goes,” he added.
The soccer player’s lawyer, like the rest of the defenses, requested the player’s acquittal on his side, as well as that DIS pay the costs of the process for having acted with “recklessness” and “bad faith”.
controversial numbers
The oral trial brought the striker back to Barcelona, from where he abruptly left in 2017 for Paris Saint-Germain.
At the hearing, a serene Ney shared the defendants’ bench with his parents, former Barcelona presidents Sandro Rosell and Josep Maria Bartomeu, and a former Santos manager, Odilio Rodrigues Filho, in addition to representatives of both clubs and the company that manages their race.
In court, the Brazilian star stated that he only signed the documents indicated by his father, and he did not do anything illegal.
In the room, “Ney” said he did not remember if he participated in the negotiations with Barça in 2011, but that his will was always clear: to fulfill his dream and sign for the Barça club, ruling out offers like the one from Real Madrid.
But, almost a decade later, that complex operation has still not left the courts.
Despite the fact that Barça initially estimated his signing at 57.1 million euros (40 million for his family and 17.1 for Santos), the Spanish justice estimated that it reached at least 83 million.
For DIS, which received 6.8 million of the official amount paid by the Brazilian club, the Catalan team, Neymar and later Santos allied themselves to hide the real amount through other camouflaged contracts, for which they now claim the money lost.
The controversial operation has already earned Barça a fine of 5.5 million euros for tax irregularities, in addition to several demands crossed with Neymar after his famous departure to PSG.
Finally, the entity and the 10 of the Brazilian team reached an agreement “in a friendly way” last year to close all pending processes.
#turn #Prosecutors #Office #Neymars #trial #Barcelona