Soccer star Arturo Vidal and several teammates on the Colo Colo soccer club are being investigated for allegedly sexually assaulting a 22-year-old woman at a bar in Chile.
The incident reportedly took place following the team’s victory over Deportes Iquique, in the penultimate round of the Chilean Championship on Sunday night in Vitacura, a commune in the Chilean capital city of Santiago.
The accusation was formalized by the sister of the victim, who told authorities that her sister was reportedly drugged and sexually assaulted by the players at Mía Bar.
The victim was scheduled to undergo a test to confirm or rule out the suspicions of sexual abuse.
Chilean soccer star Arturo Vidal and several of his teammates on the Colo Colo club are being investigated for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting a 22-year-old woman early Monday at a bar in Vitacura, a commune in the capital city of Santiago
Cops entered a private property next to the bar and attempted to get identification cards from Arturo Vidal and teammate Leandro Gil
Police colonel Gerardo Aravena told local reporters that Vidal was taken to the 37th police station, where he underwent ‘an investigative identity check,’ a police procedure that is applied when there is suspicion that a person has committed, is about to commit or has attempted to commit a crime.
His teammates were also subject to the same procedure and provided statements at the bar.
A Mía Bar manager told Chilean television station Canal 13, that the Colo Colo players were celebrating the birthday of their teammate, Lucas Cepda.
He added that the victim was at the bar with some of her friends and that she had ‘had trouble speaking and standing.’
The police released body-cam footage that showed a cop asking Vidal and teammate Leonardo Gil to present their identification cards at a private property next to the bar.
One of the individuals in the video could be heard telling the police officer that he could only carry out the identity check on a street.
Arturo Vidal was taken to a police station where he underwent ‘an investigative identity check,’ a law enforcement procedure that is applied when there is suspicion that a person has committed, is about to commit or has attempted to commit a crime
The cop, whose body-cam recorded the incident, could be seen pointing at the soccer players with a flashlight and ordering them to be brought out.
Vidal then asked the cop, ‘Why are you asking for identification inside a home?’
One of the individuals subsequently approached Vidal to calm him down and then gave a police officer a thumbs up, apparently indicating that Vidal and Gil were ready to cooperate.
Aravena declined to address the allegations in detail because it ‘is still in the preliminary stage.’
He did say that Vidal and his teammates ‘will probably also be summoned at some point to make statements.’
‘A group of athletes is mentioned in the complaint, but I cannot give more details because there are proceedings that are being carried out at this moment,’ Aravena added.
Both the prosecutor’s office and the police refused to specify the exact number of people involved in the case, but they clarified that at the moment there are no arrests and that for now they will not give more details so as not to harm the course of the investigations.
