Rape convict Robinho arrested in Brazil, club chief slams football world for silence
SANTOS, Brazil: Former Manchester City and Real Madrid footballer Robinho was arrested Thursday in Brazil, after losing a last-minute court bid to delay serving his nine-year sentence for raping a woman a decade ago.
Supreme Court Judge Luiz Fux rejected Robinho’s request for a stay and ruled “the detention order is maintained... so that he can begin serving his sentence.”
Federal Police in the southeastern city of Santos said in a statement to AFP on Thursday night that its forces “carried out an arrest warrant ... against Robson de Souza.”
“The prisoner will undergo an examination at the (Medical Legal Institute), a custody hearing and will be sent to the penitentiary system.”
Popularly known as “Robinho,” the footballer was found guilty 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 then had his sentence upheld by Italy’s highest court in 2022, after which Italian prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant for him.
Brazil does not extradite its nationals, however, and Italy asked that Robinho be made to serve his sentence in his home country instead.
A court in Brasilia agreed Wednesday, by nine votes to two, and on Thursday, court president Maria Thereza de Assis Moura signed a document paving the way for a warrant to be issued for Robinho’s incarceration.
His lawyers then filed a request to the Supreme Court for a “habeas corpus” ruling allowing him to remain a free man while challenging the latest court decision.
That was rejected.
The footballer, who protests his innocence, told Brazilian network TV Record in an interview broadcast Sunday the sex had been consensual and accused the Italian justice system of racism.
According to the complaint, Robinho and his co-accused had made the young woman drink “to the point of rendering her unconscious and unable to resist” and then had “sexual relations several times in a row” with her.
In March 2021, a Milan appeals court found Robinho had acted with “special contempt for 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 football authorities in Brazil to condemn violence against women.
In February, former Brazil international fullback Alves, 40, was sentenced to four-and-ahalf years in prison for raping a woman in a nightclub in Barcelona.
On Thursday, Palmeiras president Leila Pereira, the first woman at the head of the Brazilian club, lashed out at the football world for its silence on the twin rape convictions of Robinho and Alves.
“Nobody says anything,” she told Brazil’s UOL news site.
“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 decision Wednesday to grant Alves bail of a million euros.
“Each case of impunity is the seed of the next crime,” she added.
The father of another Brazilian football star, Neymar, on Thursday denied reports the family would pay Alves’ bail.