Former soccer star Robinho
Brazilian sentenced to nine years in prison
Ex-soccer star Robinho has to go to prison for nine years.
© imago/USA TODAY Network
Ex-soccer star Robinho was sentenced to nine years in prison for gang rape. Brazilian judges have now decided this.
Brazilian judges on Wednesday confirmed the rape conviction of former AC Milan and Brazilian national team soccer striker Robinho, 40. Robson de Souza, as the Brazilian native is called, has to serve his nine-year prison sentence Brazil.
Robinho found guilty in Milan in 2017
In the case before the Brazilian Supreme Court (STJ), the country’s highest court for non-constitutional matters, a majority ruled that an Italian court’s decision is valid in Brazil. As British sites, among others, continue to report, In 2017, a Milan court found Robinho and five other Brazilians guilty of gang-raping a woman in 2013 after plying her with alcohol at a nightclub. The conviction was upheld by an appeals court in 2020 and upheld by Italy’s Supreme Court in 2022.
Robinho lives in Brazil and has always denied the allegations. Because Brazil does not normally extradite its citizens, Italy requested last year that Robinho serve his sentence in his home country. Robinho’s lawyer, Jose Eduardo Alckmin, said after the trial that Robinho would hand himself in to authorities as soon as he was officially informed of the decision.
Brazilian court did not examine content of conviction
The Brazilian court did not reinstate the rape conviction, but only focused on checking whether the sentence imposed in Italy is valid in Brazil. However, Robinho said in an interview broadcast on a local television channel on Sunday that he hoped the court would address the substance of the case. “I was wrongly convicted in Italy for something that didn’t happen,” he said.
Robinho was signed to AC Milan from 2010 to 2015 and played for the Brazilian national team from 2003 to 2017. He also had other European positions with Manchester City and Real Madrid.