Judges in Brazil upheld the conviction of former Real Madrid striker Robinho for rape on Wednesday, ruling that the player must serve his nine-year jail term there. The trial was held at Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice, the country’s top court for non-constitutional matters and a majority ruled that the former player must serve his sentence in Brazil.
In 2017, a court in Milan convicted Robinho and five other Brazilians guilty of gang-raping a lady in 2013, after plying her with alcohol at a discotheque. In 2020, an appeals court affirmed the conviction, which was then validated by Italy’s Supreme Court in 2022.
Robinho’s attorney stated that he would surrender to the authorities once he was officially notified of the decision. The Brazilian court did not examine the rape conviction, focusing instead on whether the Italian sentence was valid in Brazil.
Robinho recently told TV Record, “It was consensual. I never denied it (the encounter). I could have denied it because my DNA was not there, but I’m not a liar. I played for four years in Italy and I got tired of seeing stories about racism. The same people who do nothing about racism, which I repudiate, are the ones who condemned me.”
