Robinho arrested in Brazil, will serve rape sentence

Former Manchester City and Real Madrid footballer Robinho has been arrested 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 that their 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 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 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 on Wednesday, by nine votes to two, and yesterday court president Maria Thereza de Assis Moura signed a document paving the way for a warrant to be issued for Robinho's incarceration.

Journalists flocked to his luxury condominium in Guaruja, near Santos, but his arrest was not caught on camera. The Globo network later aired a short video showing him inside a police precinct.

Robinho will be taken to a prison in Tremembe, about 150km southeast of Sao Paulo, the nation's most populous city, a Federal Police officer told