Nine of fifteen ministers on Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice voted to send Robinho to prison at home. According to Globo, the Wednesday ruling means the former Brazil and Manchester City winger will serve the nine-year sentence handed down in Italy for gang rape.
The ruling closes a gap that had held the case in place for years. Brazil’s constitution does not normally allow the extradition of its own citizens, so Italy’s request, made in 2022 when Robinho was 40, had no obvious path forward. Now the sentence will be served on Brazilian soil. Had he left the country, he could have faced arrest abroad.
The Italian case
Robson de Souza, as he is formally named, was one of six men found guilty of assaulting an Albanian woman in a Milan nightclub in January 2013. He was 28 then and playing for AC Milan. In January 2022, the Supreme Court in Rome rejected his last appeal against the conviction.
Intercepted phone calls between Robinho and others allegedly involved were key evidence at the first trial. In one of them he said: “It makes me laugh because I’m not interested, the woman was drunk, she doesn’t even know what happened.” The Milan Court of Appeals upheld the original sentence in December 2020 and said he had “belittled” and “brutally humiliated” the victim.
Robinho has always said he is innocent. On appeal he admitted “contact” with the woman but insisted it was consensual. He has lived in Brazil for the past seven years.
His lawyers, Globo reports, will “appeal to the BSCJ and to the Federal Supreme Court.” The outlet adds that he is expected to be arrested in Santos, where he lives.
A career that ended badly
Santos is also where it began. Robinho came through the club’s academy as one of Brazil’s rising stars, then played 137 matches for Real Madrid, 53 for Manchester City and 144 for AC Milan. For the national side he made 100 appearances and scored 28 times.
In 2020 he returned to Santos on a minimum-wage contract. Public outcry over the signing forced him to tear it up, and a major sponsor withdrew its support from the club.
