Neymar testifies in rape allegation case

Soccer star Neymar Jr. has testified in an investigation before the Brazilian police into an alleged cybercrime after he shared on social media a conversation and intimate photos of a woman who accused him of rape.

On Thursday, the Paris Saint Germain forward arrived at a police station here in a wheelchair after suffering an ankle ligament injury in a friendly between Brazil and Qatar ahead of the next week Copa America, which he will now miss.

Neymar, 27, was greeted by dozens of children at the gates of the police station, while inside he was approached by a throng of journalists who crowded around him.

The striker was called to testify before the Unit for the Suppression of Computer Crimes after posting a video on social media on Saturday in which he showed a conversation with a woman who has accused him of rape and assault, as well as intimate photos of her, although they were partially blurred.

The incident allegedly took place at a Paris hotel on May 15.

Neymar said he shared details of the conversation because he wanted to prove that he was victim of extortion by the Brazilian model.

After the publication of the video, which was later deleted by Instagram for violating the rules of the network, authorities opened an investigation against Neymar for alleged cybercrimes.

In Brazil it is a crime to offer, share, transmit, sell, distribute, publish or broadcast images or videos that contain sexual content by any means without the consent of the subject, with a potential prison sentence of one to five years, which can be increased in cases when a person did it for revenge or humiliation after having a sexual relationship.

The privacy and cybercrime charge was made after Trindade went to police in Sao Paulo last week to accuse Neymar of sexually assaulting her.

She told SBT Brazil in a televised interview on Wednesday that she was raped and assaulted by the Paris Saint-Germain star in a hotel room last month.

"I was the victim of rape," she said, "An assault together with rape."

She said that Neymar, the world's most expensive footballer, had paid for her to travel to Paris from Brazil and had paid for her hotel.

She said that when he arrived at the hotel on May 15, he was aggressive, drunk and refused to stop, despite her pleas.

Trindade's lawyer, Danilo Garcia de Andrade, appeared Thursday at a police station in Sao Paulo and announced that her client would give a new statement to the authorities on Friday.

--IANS

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