March 22 – Former Brazilian international Robinho has been arrested to serve his nine-year prison sentence for rape.
Brazilian judges ruled earlier this week that the former Manchester City and Real Madrid striker must serve the term in his homeland as a result of a 2017 rape conviction in Italy.
Robinho has always denied the claims that he took part in gang rape of a 22-year-old Albanian woman at nightclub in Milan in January 2013. But the court decided by nine votes to two in favour of an Italian request that Robinho be jailed in his home country.
His lawyer, Jose Alckmin, told reporters he would work to keep his client out of jail while they appealed.
The former Brazil international, now 40, was originally convicted by an Italian court for the crime committed four years earlier when he was playing for AC Milan.
Robinho was reportedly arrested at his flat in his home city of Santos while a Supreme Court judge rejected a request to halt his detention.
With 100 caps for his country, he was playing for AC Milan at the time of the crime. After being found guilty, he lost an appeal in 2020 before Italy’s highest court upheld his sentence in 2022. Italian prosecutors then issued an international arrest warrant for him.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1713958811labto1713958811ofdlr1713958811owedi1713958811sni@w1713958811ahsra1713958811w.wer1713958811dna1713958811