Robinho, convicted of rape, arrested in Brazil after a request for a suspended sentence is refused – Firstpost

Former Manchester City and Real Madrid footballer Robinho was arrested in Brazil on Thursday after losing a last-minute bid to delay the execution of his nine-year prison sentence for raping a woman there is ten years old.

Supreme Court Justice Luiz Fux rejected Robinho’s request for a reprieve and ruled that “the detention order stands… so that he can begin serving his sentence.”

The federal police in Santos, in the southeast of the country, declared Thursday evening in a statement to AFP that their forces “had executed an arrest warrant (…) against Robson de Souza”.

“The prisoner will undergo an examination at the Forensic Institute, a custody hearing and will be sent to the prison system.”

Popularly known as “Robinho”, the footballer was convicted by an Italian court in 2017 of taking part in the gang rape of an Albanian woman celebrating her 23rd birthday at a Milan nightclub four years earlier.

The former Brazil international, now 40, lost an appeal in 2020 and had his sentence upheld by Italy’s top court in 2022, after which Italian prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant for him .

However, Brazil does not extradite its nationals and Italy has requested that Robinho serve his sentence in his home country.

A Brasilia court agreed on Wednesday, by nine votes to two, and on Thursday the court’s president, Maria Thereza de Assis Moura, signed a document paving the way for an arrest warrant to be issued against Robinho.

Journalists flocked to his luxury condominium in Guaruja, near Santos, but his arrest was not filmed. The Globo channel then broadcast a short video showing him inside a police station.

Robinho will be taken to a prison in Tremembe, about 150 kilometers southeast of Sao Paulo, the country’s most populous city, a federal police officer told reporters.

His lawyers had filed a petition with the Supreme Court to allow him to remain free while challenging the latest court decision.

This was rejected.

“Brutally humiliated”

The footballer, who maintains his innocence, told the Brazilian television channel Save in an interview broadcast on Sunday, he claimed that the sexual relations had been consensual and accused the Italian justice system of racism.

According to the complaint, Robinho and his co-defendants made the young woman drink “to the point of rendering her unconscious and unable to resist”, then had “sexual relations several times in a row” with her.

In March 2021, a Milan appeals court ruled that Robinho had acted with “particular contempt towards the victim, who was brutally humiliated”.

Robinho’s case and that of former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain defender Dani Alves have sparked criticism over the failure of Brazilian football authorities to condemn violence against women.

In February, former Brazilian international fullback Alves, 40, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for raping a woman in a Barcelona nightclub.

On Thursday, the president of Palmeiras, Leila Pereira, the first woman at the head of the Brazilian club, castigated the football world for its silence on the two rape convictions of Robinho and Alves.

“No one says anything,” she told Brazilian news site UOL.

“It’s a slap in the face for all of us women, especially the case of Daniel Alves, who paid for (his) freedom,” Pereira said, referring to a Spanish court’s decision on Wednesday to grant Alves a bail of one million euros.

“Each case of impunity is the seed of the next crime,” she added.

Robinho, for his part, will not regain his freedom quickly because Brazil “does not allow bail” for the crime of which he is accused, criminal lawyer Leonardo Pantaleao told AFP.

Fall from grace

For Robinho, it was a dramatic fall from grace.

Having started his career in 2002 at Santos, a team made famous by the great Brazilian Pelé, he was presented as the successor to the golden generation of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho.

In 2005, he joined Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham at Real Madrid.

He then played for Manchester City from 2008 to 2010, then for Milan for four years until 2014.

In 2009, he was briefly detained in England for an alleged sexual assault on a young woman, but the charges against him were dropped after an investigation.

He sought to return to Santos in 2020, but the club suspended the deal following pressure from fans and sponsors, leading to an abrupt end to his career.

Around the same time, the television channel Globo Sports had released excerpts from a recording used by Italian prosecutors to secure their conviction, in which Robinho allegedly said: “I’m laughing because I don’t care. The woman was completely drunk. She doesn’t even know what happened.

Robinho has 100 caps for Brazil and 28 goals for his country.