Former Brazil international Robinho will serve a nine-year jail sentence after he was found guilty in 2017 for gang rape.
It comes as Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice (BSCJ) has ruled that the 40-year-old will serve his sentence in Brazil after Italian authorities had asked to extradite him in 2022.
The ex-Premier League player, who’s real name is Robson De Souza, was one of six men who were found guilty of assaulting an Albanian woman in an Italian nightclub in January 2013.
Robinho claims he is innocent and has been living in Brazil for the past seven years.
But the BSCJ, according to Globo, have reviewed the request from the Italian justice ministry and have reached a decision that the 40-year-old should serve his nine-year sentence in his native country.
It came after nine of the court’s 15 ministers had voted in favour of the decision to incarcerate the footballer in Brazil. The outlet reports that his legal representatives will appeal to the BSCJ and to the Federal Supreme Court.
Globo also claims that the ex-footballer, who also spent time at AC Milan and Real Madrid, will now be arrested in Santos, where he currently resides.
The Brazilian constitution does not normally permit the extraditions of native criminals. He could have faced arrest if he had travelled outside of Brazil.
Robinho, who was 28 and was playing for AC Milan at the time, admitted during his appeal to having ‘contact’ with the woman, but the Brazilian insisted it was consensual.
The Milan Court of Appeals found Robinho had ‘belittled’ and ‘brutally humiliated’ the victim as it upheld his original sentence in December 2020.
The winger played 137 matches for Real Madrid, 53 for Man City and 144 for AC Milan during his playing career. He also made 100 appearances for the Brazil national side.
