Football star Neymar has given evidence for almost two hours in Brazil in an investigation linked to a woman’s rape allegation against him.
The Brazilian football confederation reported earlier that Neymar had received a subpoena to speak to authorities about his posting on social media of images and messages of the accuser without her authorisation in possible violation of her online privacy.
Neymar arrived at Rio de Janeiro’s police headquarters to give evidence. He spoke to journalists afterwards at the station but did not provide any details about his evidence in the cybercrime case.
“I only want to thank the support and messages that everybody sent,” said the player, who was using crutches because of his injured right ankle.
Neymar is expected to speak to authorities in the next few days about the rape allegation, which is being investigated separately in Sao Paulo, where the woman filed a formal complaint with police.
The complaint alleges the Brazilian international raped her in a Paris hotel room on May 15th. A doctor gave a statement to Sao Paulo police on Thursday about his medical examination of the accuser.
Neymar, who plays in the French capital for Paris St-Germain, denies any wrongdoing. After word of the woman’s allegation became known, he shared social media posts meant to show the accuser had sent him friendly messages after the alleged rape.
Neymar injured his ankle in a friendly against Qatar on Wednesday held as a warm-up for the Copa America tournament. The accuser, Najila Trindade, a 26-year-old model, made her first public comments about her charge this week, telling two Brazilian television stations that Neymar raped her and engaged in “aggression”, or physical violence.
She told the SBT channel that Neymar became aggressive after she refused to have unprotected sex with him. She said the player had sex with her despite her refusal and hit her repeatedly.
“I said ‘Stop it, stop it, stop it’. He did not communicate, he just acted,” Ms Trindade said.
Her lawyer, Danilo Garcia de Andrade, said Ms Trindade is suffering “threats, she is taking medicines, she has problems sleeping and of course she is scared”.
He did not say what kind of threats she received or who they were coming from. A video emerged on social media on Thursday night that appears to show Neymar and his accuser in a physical altercation. It is unclear how or when the video was made.
Neymar da Silva Santos, Neymar’s father and agent, said the new video is evidence that his son was set up by Ms Trindade. She denied that during her TV appearances, saying “I wouldn’t expose myself this way to take money from Neymar. There is no logic, there is no sense.”
One of her lawyers said she will give evidence in Sao Paulo on Friday.
