Brazil and Barcelona forward Neymar has been cleared of criminal charges in a tax evasion case in his home country, his father announced.
A federal court judge in Rio de Janeiro last year found Neymar guilty of tax fraud for failure to report earnings from his contracts with Santos, Barcelona, and Nike, and ordered him to pay 188.8 million Brazilian reals ($52.1m, €45.9m) in fines and back-taxes.
But after appealing the fine -- which included back-taxes and interest -- a judge found in Neymar's favour and decided to halve the punishment. However, other charges of evading Brazilian taxes on his 2013 transfer to Barcelona had remain open until now.
"It is with great joy the we received the news of the termination of proceedings regarding the complaint on tax evasion directed by the Federal Public Ministry," Neymar Sr said in a statement. "The proceeding is officially closed, thus it proves the lawfulness on every act we took.
"During four years of unfounded accusations me, my family and our employees suffered a lot and in every possible way. But albeit lots of people doubt, there's justice in our country.
"Accusation after accusation, one after the other, they were all defeated by our defence, leaving it clear that we did not evade not one penny in taxes. Now I hope we can focus only in our jobs, and that me and my family can have the peace we deserve."