The son
of the Brazilian football legend Pele has been sentenced to 33 years in jail
for laundering money raised from drug trafficking.
Edinho is
a retired footballer who played goalkeeper for Pele's old club, Santos, in the
1990s.
He was
first arrested in 2005 and has served a sentence for drug trafficking offences
and links with a notorious drug dealer in the city of Santos.
He says
he is a drug addict but denies the trafficking charges.
The
ruling was issued by a judge in the nearby coastal city of Praia Grande, in Sao
Paulo state. Brazilian media have not
been able to contact Edinho, whose real name is Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, but
they say he is expected to appeal.
Edinho,
43, works as a goalkeeping coach at Santos.
US
childhood
Pele, or
Edson Arantes do Nascimento, played all his professional career in Brazil for
Santos.
Playing
for Brazil, he won the World Cup in 1958, 1962 and 1970 and was acclaimed as
the greatest footballer of his generation.
He retired in 1974, but made a
comeback a year later for New York Cosmos.
Edinho is Pele's third son from his
first marriage. He was five when the family moved to New York to play for
Cosmos.
When he returned to Brazil he
decided to pursue a career in professional football - as a goalkeeper, much to
his father's surprise.
He was Santos' goalkeeper in 1995
when the team reached the Brazilian league final, losing the title to Botafogo. His detention and alleged involvement with
drug gangs took most people in Brazil by surprise.
Pele, now 73, went to visit his son
several times in jail.
"God willing, justice will be
done. There is not a shred of evidence against my son," he said in 2006.
Edinho said that his father was his
idol.
Four other people have also been
convicted for many laundering, including a man accused of controlling much of
the drug trafficking in the region - Ronaldo Duarte Barsotti, known as
Naldinho. (BBC)
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