Cristiano Ronaldo's family launches social media campaign amid rape allegations
What's the story?
Following recent rape allegations that were leveled against Portuguese ace Cristiano Ronaldo, the Portuguese's family have now reportedly launched a social media campaign encouraging his fans to support and defend him against the claims.
In case you didn't know...
Ronaldo recently made the headlines after accusations of rape levelled at him by an American woman, Kathryn Mayorga, emerged.
Mayorga accused the former Real Madrid man of raping her in a Las Vegas hotel room in June 2009 when he was holidaying with his cousin and brother-in-law.
Mayorga further claimed that the Portuguese ace had paid her $375,000 and convinced her to sign a nondisclosure agreement that guaranteed her silence following the alleged incident.
Ronaldo has since denied the allegations via a statement on his Twitter account. The statement read, "I firmly deny the accusations being issued against me. Rape is an abominable crime that goes against everything that I am and believe in. Keen as I may be to clear my name, I refuse to feed the media spectacle created by people seeking to promote themselves at my expense."
"My clear conscious will thereby allow me to wait with tranquillity the results of any and all investigations."
The heart of the matter
Ronaldo’s mother Dolores and sister Katia took to social media to post a photo of the Juventus forward in a Superman cape and urged others to do the same as a show of solidarity.
The caption read, "I want to see who has the courage to put this photo on their profile for a week and make a chain for him..for Portugal, for him, for us and for the union of our people, for justice. He deserves it."
Accompanying the photo were also two hashtags in Portuguese. The first one translates as "#Ronaldo, we are with you to the end" and the other as "Justice for CR7".
The post received 15,000 likes in the first hour it was put up.
What's next?
Las Vegas police have confirmed that they have reopened the investigation into the case and it remains to be seen how the case moves forward.