Cristiano Ronaldo's lawyers claim 'signed' rape documents are 'completely fabricated'
What's the story?
Cristiano Ronaldo's lawyers have branded the recently-released documents, substantiating the rape claims against the player, as 'completely fabricated'.
The documents are evidence of the alleged out-of-court agreement involving a $375,000 (£288,000) payment to silence Kathryn Mayorga.
In case you didn't know...
The Portuguese recently made headlines after accusations of rape levelled at him by 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."
Las Vegas police have since reopened the investigation into the case.
The heart of the matter
German publication Der Spiegel recently published a document supposedly signed by Cristiano Ronaldo and Kathryn Mayorga to ensure her silence over the allegations.
It is claimed that the document had an agreement of a 325,000-euro payment together with an HIV test result given to Mayorga to show that she wasn't at risk.
Ronaldo's lawyer, Peter S Christiansen, has called the documents 'completely fabricated' and 'pure inventions'.
Christiansen said, "The documents that allegedly contain statements by Cristiano Ronaldo and were reproduced in the media are pure inventions."
"So there are no doubts: Cristiano Ronaldo vehemently denies all the accusations in this civil action, in consistency with what he has done in the last nine years."
"By 2015, dozens of entities [including law firms] in different parts of Europe were attacked and saw a lot of information on their electronic equipment being stolen by a hacker. This hacker then tried to sell such information, having now a media outlet irresponsibly publishing some of the stolen documents, significant parts of which were altered and/or completely forged."
He added, "Cristiano Ronaldo does not deny he agreed to conclude an agreement with [Ms Mayorga] but the reasons that led him to do so are at least to be misrepresented. This agreement is by no means a confession of guilt."
"Once again, for the avoidance of doubt, Cristiano Ronaldo’s position has always been, and continues to be, that what happened in 2009 in Las Vegas was completely consensual."
What's next?
The publication that released the document, Der Spiegel, have released a statement saying their story was carefully researched and that they stand by their reporting.
The statement read, "The statement that was issued by Peter Christiansen on behalf of Cristiano Ronaldo presents the usual path that Mr Ronaldo and his lawyers have taken in the past when unsuccessfully fighting our investigative work."
"We stand by our reporting. Our story is carefully researched. We have hundreds of documents from different sources that substantiate our reporting. We have no reason to believe that those documents are not authentic. Furthermore, as always and before publishing every single article, we have meticulously fact-checked our information and had it legally reviewed."