Football: Spanish court clears Neymar, co-defendants of all charges in fraud case
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Paris Saint-Germain forward Neymar leaving after attending a hearing at the courthouse in Barcelona on Oct 18.
PHOTO: AFP
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MADRID – A Spanish court on Tuesday acquitted Brazil football star Neymar and other defendants in a fraud and corruption case over his 2013 transfer to Barcelona from Santos after prosecutors had dropped all charges in the high-profile trial, the court said in a statement.
The suit had been brought by Brazilian investment firm DIS, the owner of 40 per cent of the rights to Neymar when he was at Santos.
DIS argued it had lost out on a cut from the transfer because its true value was understated and sought a five-year jail term for Neymar and a total fine of €149 million (S$212.7 million) for the defendants.
The judges decided to acquit the nine defendants who were being prosecuted in this trial, including Barcelona, former club presidents Josep Maria Bartomeu and Sandro Rosell, Santos and Neymar’s father, the court said in a statement.
Neymar’s high-profile trial got underway in mid-October in Barcelona, just a month before the start of the World Cup in Qatar where the 30-year-old – who is now at French champions Paris Saint-Germain – and Brazil crashed out after a penalty shoot-out defeat Croatia
By late October, prosecutor Luis Garcia Canton asked the Barcelona court to acquit all defendants
