Cristiano Ronaldo's Lawyers Threaten to Sue German Outlet Over Reported Rape Allegations
Cristiano Ronaldo's lawyers are threatening to sue German magazine Der Spiegel after it published detailed and graphic allegations that the Portuguese star raped an American woman in Las Vegas in 2009.
Ronaldo's lawyer Christian Schertz released a statement calling the report "blatantly illegal" and claiming that he would seek compensation from the magazine for "moral damages."
"The reporting in SPIEGEL is blatantly illegal. It violates the personal rights of our client Cristiano Ronaldo in an exceptionally serious way. This is an inadmissible reporting of suspicions in the area of privacy. It would therefore already be unlawful to reproduce this reporting. We have been instructed to immediately assert all existing claims under press law against SPIEGEL, in particular compensation for moral damages in an amount corresponding to the gravity of the infringement, which is probably one of the most serious violations of personal rights in recent years."
The magazine reported that the alleged sexual assault occurred in June 2009 in a Las Vegas hotel room, according to Leslie Mark Stovall, lawyer of the alleged victim Kathryn Mayorga, Reuters reports.
Ronaldo and Mayorga reportedly reached a non-disclosure agreement regarding the alleged incident. The Juventus forward also allegedly paid Mayorga $375,000, according to Reuters.
The allegations first came to light in April 2017, when Der Spiegel first published the story without the identity of the alleged victim based on documents that were said to have revealed the out-of-court settlement between the two parties. Mayorga's identity and a more detailed account of the alleged incident were revealed in Der Spiegel's latest story. Ronaldo and his team flatly denied the initial story as well.
Stovall and Mayorga did not respond to Reuters's requests for comments. The lawyer told Der Spiegel that he filed a civil complaint seeking to have the non-disclosure agreement void, according to Reuters.
