SAO PAULO/BRASILIA (Reuters) – Brazilian judges ruled on Wednesday to uphold former AC Milan and Brazil striker Robinho’s rape conviction, adding that he must serve his nine-year prison sentence in Brazil.
The trial in Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice (STJ), the country’s top court for non-constitutional matters, ended with the majority of judges ruling that Italy’s decision was valid in Brazil.
A Milan court in 2017 found Robinho and five other Brazilians guilty of gang raping a woman after plying her with alcohol in a discotheque. The conviction was confirmed by an appeals court in 2020 and validated by Italy’s Supreme Court in 2022.
The 40-year-old Robinho, whose full name is Robson de Souza, lives in Brazil and has always denied the charges.
Brazil does not usually extradite its citizens, so Italy requested last year that Robinho should serve his prison sentence in his home country.
(Reporting by Andre Romani in Sao Paulo and Maria Carolina Marcello in Brasilia; Editing by Kylie Madry and Ed Osmond)
Source Agencies
