Brasilia, Aug 23 (EFE).- The Brazilian congressional commission investigating a network that rigged matches to favor a betting mafia summoned footballers Lucas Paquetá, from English Wets Ham, and Luiz Henrique, from Betis, to testify on Wednesday Spanish.
In a session held this Wednesday, the Parliamentary Investigation Commission (CPI) on Football Manipulation approved 18 requests submitted by the deputies that make it up, including the “invitation” to testify against Lucas Paquetá and Luiz Henrique.
The deputies indicated that the two footballers will be heard and questioned by videoconference, since both are in the middle of the championship, playing the English and Spanish leagues.
The summons was approved after the session in which the experienced winger Nino Paraiba, from Paysandu de Belém, was questioned and who until the first semester defended América de Belo Horizonte, from the first division.
Lucas Paquetá, due to his possible link in the investigated case, was no longer called up by the national coach Fernando Diniz for the first matches for the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, in which Brazil will face Bolivia and Peru.
Diniz acknowledged that the West Ham midfielder was among those called up, but decided to take him out at the last minute after reports in the English press that he is being investigated in a scheme of irregular bets linked to his environment.
The deputies want to know, if confirmed, if the cases of Lucas Paquetá, in England, and Luiz Henrique, in Spain, are related to the network that manipulated parties in Brazil.
Last July, the ordinary Justice of Brazil returned seven soccer players and seven other people accused of participating in the network as defendants in the process.
The Court of Justice of the state of Goiás (center) accepted the complaint filed by the Prosecutor’s Office about the manipulation of thirteen results, in the first case addressed by the civil judiciary and dismembered from the multiple denounced in sports establishments.
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The thirteen matches correspond to Series A of the 2022 Brazilian Championship and are part of the third phase of the so-called “Operation Pena Máxima”.
The footballers Dadá Belmonte (América de Belo Horizonte), Alef Manga (separated from Coritiba) and Igor Carius (Sport Recife) were formally charged in the case.
Also included are the Uruguayan Jesús Trindade (formerly of Coritiba), Pedrinho (former player of Athletico Paranaense and now with Shakthar in Ukraine), Sidcley (formerly Cuiabá and who plays for Dinamo Kiev in Ukraine) and Thonny Anderson (ABC de Natal).
If convicted, the fourteen defendants can receive sentences ranging from two to six years in prison.
Sports Justice had already sanctioned some of those players and others who did not appear in the July sentence.
In June, the Superior Court of Sports Justice (STJD) sentenced forward Ygor Catatau, a former Vasco da Gama player who migrated to Iranian football, to the final expulsion from the fields.
The results manipulation network was exposed earlier this year and is suspected of promoting fraud in at least 13 games played since last year, including eight in the first division league.
(c) EFE Agency
2023-08-24 00:05:20
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