SAO PAULO AFP: Brazilian football star Neymar said he was “relieved” on Friday after a judge in Sao Paulo dismissed the rape case against him citing insufficient evidence.
“I’ll be sincere and I’m not going to say I’m happy, but yes, relieved,” said Neymar in an Instagram post.
The decision, the final episode in the rape case hanging over the superstar since June, comes on the recommendation of prosecutors just over a month after police dropped the case citing lack of evidence. Neymar vehemently denied allegations he raped a Brazilian woman in a Paris hotel in May.
Judge Ana Paula Vieira de Moraes “accepted prosecutors recommendations and demanded the case be dismissed,” a court spokesman told AFP.
Neymar said he would “never forget” this incident due to the “pain it caused me, my family and the people who really know me.”
He added: “This scar will remain to remind me at what point people are capable of doing good things, but also of doing bad things.”
Prosecutor Flavia Merlini had argued that the plaintiff Najila Trindade, a Brazilian model, had provided no conclusive evidence of rape.