Police in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo arrested a fan on Thursday accused of having sent threats against Corinthians winger Willian Borges da Silva and his relatives through social media.
The arrest occurred one day after the former player of the English clubs Chelsea and Arsenal went to a police station in Sao Paulo, for the second time so far this year, to denounce the threats in his against.
The Sao Paulo Civil Police refrained from disclosing the identity of the detainee and only reported that he is a man of 21 years old who says he is a fan of Corinthians, one of the the most popular clubs in Brazil and that until Sunday led the classification of the Brazilian Championship alone, but without ties to the team’s brave fans.
According to the midfielder’s complaint, a profile with the name of “raphaoriginal” threatened him and his daughters with “shots” and “knifes” in messages in which he copied the soccer player’s link on social networks and in which he warned him that “he either plays for love or out of terror”.
This is not the first time that the footballer has received threats this year nor the first Corinthians player in suffer them. The police have already filed charges against other fans who have sent threats to the goalkeeper Cassio, the defender Gil and even the president of the club, Duílio Monteiro Alves.
“That they demand good performance in a center of training or in a stadium is something normal, but the Police cannot accept that of uttering threats, of saying that they are going to go to the daughters’ school, of citing the address where they live… That is a crime, “said Commissioner Cesar Saad, investigator of the Department of Strategic Special Operations (Dope) of the Civil Police.
The commissioner added that the imprisoned fan will be formally charged with the crime of threatening by electronic means, but, according to the press, it is most likely that he will be able to respond to the process in freedom because he was not arrested in flagrante delicto.
Saad said that the defendant argued in his defense that he only replied to his networks messages against Willian in which he marked the player’s name adorer and that he did not expect such a great repercussion of the matter.
Willian, from 33 years and who played in the World Cups in Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018 with the Brazilian team, he returned to the country this year after 14 seasons abroad, where he played with the Ukrainian Shakhtar Donetsk and Russian Anzi, as well as Chelsea and Arsenal.
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