Paris Saint-Germain’s Brazilian international, Neymar Jr, has obtained habeas corpus in a Brazilian court thanks to which he cannot be “prosecuted or detained” for tax evasion in his country, in the context of two tax actions.
The Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region of Brazil pronounced the suspension of a “criminal investigative procedure” in which the prosecution offered an agreement to avoid his indictment.
However, the court found there was not enough evidence for the prosecution to offer a deal.
“It would be clearly authoritarian to threaten with criminal law those who exercise their fundamental constitutional right to pay everything when it is due, but only when it is due,” said the footballer’s defense in a press release.
This case has nothing to do with the trial that the star of the Brazilian team will face in Spain next October, a month before the start of the Qatar World Cup, for alleged irregularities during his signing to Barcelona in 2013.
In the Brazilian case, Neymar is accused of tax evasion for not having declared correctly and, therefore, not having paid the corresponding taxes linked to the payments he and his family received from Barcelona between 2011 and 2013, while was still a Santos player.
The Brazilian Treasury imposed a fine of 188 million reais (about $36 million) which the footballer managed to reduce considerably thanks to a series of appeals before the courts.
In May 2020, he also obtained an injunction allowing him to suspend payment of the fine until the case was tried.
Neymar’s defense argues that a large part of the money claimed by the Brazilian authorities was paid in Spain, while defending the colors of Barcelona, through the payment of taxes in this country, the amounts of which must be subtracted of the fine.
After habeas corpus, his lawyers insisted that there is “no modicum of certainty that foul play exists”, nor “the possibility that the federal prosecution will seek a conviction. or has an “interest in acting”.
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