Robinho’s prison term confirmed by Brazilian court

A Brazilian court upholds nine-year prison sentence for soccer star Robinho, convicted of rape in Italy

A Brazilian high court ruled Wednesday that former soccer star Robinho must serve his nine-year prison sentence in his home nation as a result of his 2017 rape conviction in Italy.

Lawyers for 40-year-old Robinho said they will file a habeas corpus request at Brazil’s Supreme Court so he can remain free while he appeals.

Judges on Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice in the capital city of Brasilia voted 9-2 to validate the former Real Madrid, Manchester City, and AC Milan striker’s conviction.

Robinho was sentenced in Italy to nine years in prison for his part in a group sexual assault in 2013 when he played for AC Milan.

Brazil doesn’t extradite nationals, which led Italy to seek his imprisonment in his home nation.

“Brazil cannot be a shelter for criminals,” Judge Mauro Campbell Marques said during his vote.

Judges’ voting ended in less than a day. Most Brazilian legal analysts expected the court’s decision to take days, possibly weeks.

The swift decision came on the same day a Spanish court decided that Brazilian soccer star Dani Alves could leave prison if he paid a bail of 1 million euros ($1.1 million) and handed over his passports while awaiting the appeal of his conviction for raping a woman in Barcelona.

Robinho’s lawyer, Jose Eduardo Alckmin, told the court at the start of Wednesday’s hearing that his client wants a retrial in Brazil on the grounds of national sovereignty.

Alckmin added that without a habeas corpus, Robinho could be jailed “in a matter of days, it could even be hours.”

“Robinho is available for our judiciary. If an officer arrives, he will comply and not oppose,” the lawyer said.

The first judge to vote, Francisco Falcao, said Robinho should serve his sentence in Brazil. He added that the former player cannot go unpunished and that diplomatic friction between Brazil and Italy could emerge if the sentence is not served

“There’s no obstacle to validating the execution of his sentence. It was confirmed by a court in Milan, which is the competent authority in this case,” Falcao said. “The conviction is final. The defendant was not tried in Italy absentia; he had representation.”

Judge Raul Araujo, one of the two who disagreed with the majority, argued Robinho could not be jailed in Brazil for a conviction in Italy.

Judge Isabel Gallotti, one of the few women in the court, disagreed.

“This foreign sentence is long, well-founded, and well-reasoned,” Gallotti said.

Robinho lives in Santos, outside Sao Paulo. He relinquished his passport to Brazilian authorities in March 2023. He continues to deny any wrongdoing and insists his sexual relations with the woman at a Milan bar were consensual.

The court also ruled it would be up to authorities in Santos to decide when and how to jail Robinho.

Source: AP

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