Robinho awaits fate on serving nine-year rape sentence in Brazil

(FILES) Robinho of Brazil’s Atletico Mineiro gestures during their 2017 Copa Libertadores match against Bolivia’s Wilstermann held at Mineirao stadium, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on August 9, 2017. – Brazilian justice will examine on March 20, 2024, whether former soccer player Robinho should serve his sentence for rape in Brazil, where the trial against Dani Alves sparked criticism for the silence of the cream of the football world in cases of violence against women. The magistrates of the Superior Court of Justice (STJ), based in Brasilia, will evaluate the request of the Italian justice system to homologate a nine-year prison sentence imposed on the former striker in Milan in 2017 and ultimately ratified in Rome in 2022. (Photo by DOUGLAS MAGNO / AFP)

Brazil’s justice system on Wednesday will decide whether former Manchester City and Real Madrid striker Robinho will serve his nine-year rape sentence, handed down by an Italian court, in the South American country.

Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice (STJ) will examine the Italian request to approve the prison sentence that was imposed in 2017 and ratified in 2022.

“I hope that here in Brazil I can have the voice that I didn’t have there,” Robinho, who has protested his innocence, said in an interview with Brazilian network TV Record on Sunday.

Robson de Souza, popularly known as “Robinho”, remains free despite his conviction for being among a group of six men who gang raped a young Albanian woman out celebrating her 23rd birthday at a Milan nightclub in 2013.

Former Brazil international Robinho was playing his club football for AC Milan at the time.

His sentence was upheld by Italy’s highest court, after which Italian prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant.

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