Huesca sporting director Emilio Vega has defended the club’s signing of Ruben Semedo and he ‘has played matches in prison’.
The central defender left jail last week after spending five months behind bars by paying a €30k deposit and has joined the newly promoted club on loan from Villarreal.
The 24-year-old was charged with a number of offences including robbery, assault, kidnapping and attempted murder.
“Ruben is in a very good condition physically and he played matches in prison,” Vega said on Cadena Ser.
“This club and this city will be good for him, it is a tranquil place and extremely welcoming, it will be like a family for him to allow him to perform to his highest level.
“We will not judge him, he is here because of his football talent and it is up to the justice system to make a ruling and we must always act on assuming people are innocent.
“We will not monitor him away from the pitch, he will have to follow the same rules as the other 23 players in the squad and if he does not, he will be punished.
“Everybody deserves a second chance.”
On 20 February, Semedo was detained for supposedly tying up and assaulting a man in his home alongside two others, then proceeding to go to the victim's house to rob the property.
The Portuguese must remain in Spain and not go within 300 metres of the victim, while he must return to court on a weekly basis to confirm his whereabouts.
The complainant alleges that he was locked in a room after being immobilised, while the accused stole his keys, broke into his apartment and carried out large scale theft, with gunshots also said to be involved to intimidate the individual.
The defender has now been suspended without pay by Villarreal and had previous applications for bail thrown out by the court.
The Portugal international’s run-in with the law made headlines in Spain earlier this year after allegedly carrying a firearm at a nightclub in Valencia in November and smashing a man over the head with a glass bottle in separate incidents.
Semedo joined Villarreal from Sporting CP in the summer for €14m but has played only four league games due to his season being disrupted by injuries.
