The Argentine judge Andrés Donnola has issued a preventive detention order against Matías Horacio Messi, elder brother of FC Barcelona player Lionel Messi, for a crime of "illegal possession of a firearm."
Until December 23, Matías will remain in the Sanatorio Parque de Rosario, where he recovers from an accident aboard a boat on the Paraná River, although he will continue in police custody. The judge has issued a prison order on request from the Prosecutor's Office, which proposed an agreement between the parties for Matías Messi to serve pretrial detention. The crime for which he is being accused has a sentence ranging from three and a half years to eight and a half years in prison. Messi's defence may appeal to change the place where he will serve his preventive detention once he is discharged from hospital.
The brother of the soccer player was arrested after a 380-calibre weapon and important bloodstains were found on his boat last Thursday near the city of Rosario. A sample of the blood found in the boat has been sent to a laboratory to determine if he was accompanied.
