Former Brazilian international footballer Robinho was convicted of rape and imprisoned in Brazil.

Former Brazilian international footballer Robinho will go to jail. The former Real Madrid, AC Milan and Manchester City player was arrested on Thursday March 21 in Santos, a city in southeastern Brazil where he lives. He will be jailed for nine years for gang rape in Italy, police announced.

“The federal police issued an arrest warrant on Thursday evening (…) Against Robson D’Souza », known as Robinho, Santos police announced in a statement sent to Agence-France-Presse (AFP). The Supreme Court had earlier rejected a final appeal seeking a stay on the former player’s imprisonment

On Wednesday evening, in Brasilia, the magistrates of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) decided by a large majority of nine votes out of eleven that the former Brazilian international could be imprisoned in Brazil, a decision “with immediate effect”.

The president of the STJ, Maria Theresa de Asis Moura, signed a document recording the high court’s decision on Thursday afternoon, allowing the Santos judge to issue a committal warrant.

Former international lawyers filed a petition in the Supreme Court“Habeus Corpus” So that he remains free until all possible appeals are exhausted.

An Italian court pronounced the sentence

Robinho, 40, was sentenced in 2017 by an Italian court to nine years in prison for gang rape in 2013 while he was an AC Milan player. He had returned to Brazil at the time of the trial. The sentence was upheld by the Italian Court of Cassation in January 2022.

Since Brazil’s constitution does not allow the extradition of its citizens, Italian justice demanded that Robinho serve his sentence in his home country, which the STJ accepted on Wednesday.

The former striker with a hundred caps has always maintained his innocence, and claims to have had an affair “Consent” with the victim, a 23-year-old Albanian woman, in a Milanese nightclub.

On Thursday, Brazilian club Palmeras president Leila Pereira criticized the silence of football’s governing bodies over the two major rape cases in Brazil, with football stars Robinho and former full-back Daniel Alves jailed in Spain.

“No one says anything (…). It’s a slap in the face to all of us.”lamented during an interview with the UOL news site, one of the rare women to head a First Division club worldwide.

Trained at the Santos club, like Pele, Robinho played at major European clubs, such as Real Madrid, AC Milan or Manchester City, but his career never reached the promising heights.

He ended it in 2020, after a final comeback attempt at Santos, his contract ended before he could play again, under pressure from supporters and sponsors after he was found guilty of rape in Italy.