Brazil’s justice system on Wednesday will determine whether or not former Manchester Metropolis and Actual Madrid striker Robinho will serve his nine-year rape sentence, handed down by an Italian courtroom, within the South American nation.
Brazil’s Superior Court docket of Justice (STJ) will study the Italian request to approve the jail sentence that was imposed in 2017 and ratified in 2022.
“I hope that right here in Brazil I can have the voice that I didn’t have there,” Robinho, who has protested his innocence, mentioned in an interview with Brazilian community TV File on Sunday.
Robson de Souza, popularly generally known as “Robinho”, stays free regardless of his conviction for being amongst a bunch of six males who gang raped a younger Albanian girl out celebrating her twenty third birthday at a Milan nightclub in 2013.
Former Brazil worldwide Robinho was enjoying his membership soccer for AC Milan on the time.
His sentence was upheld by Italy’s highest courtroom, after which Italian prosecutors issued a global arrest warrant.
Brazil doesn’t extradite its nationals, nonetheless, and Italy requested that Robinho be made to serve his sentence in his residence nation as a substitute.
On Sunday, Robinho accused the Italian justice system of “racism”.
“It was consensual,” Robinho advised TV File.
“I by no means denied it (the encounter). I may have denied it as a result of my DNA was not there, however I’m not a liar.
“I performed for 4 years in Italy and I acquired uninterested in seeing tales about racism. The identical individuals who do nothing about racism, which I repudiate, are those who condemned me.”
If the ruling goes in opposition to him, the 40-year-old may nonetheless stay free whereas awaiting an attraction to Brazil’s Supreme Court docket.
Brazil president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has mentioned that he hopes Robinho can “serve” the sentence on Brazilian soil.
– ‘Unprecedented case’ –
In line with Brazilian media, magistrates are anticipated to approve Italy’s request.
“Approval just isn’t frequent, as a result of the legislation that permits it’s comparatively latest. It will be an unprecedented case in Brazil,” lawyer Leonardo Pantaleao advised AFP.
In the meantime, Robinho’s case and that of former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain defender Dani Alves have sparked criticism over the failure of soccer authorities in Brazil to sentence violence in opposition to ladies.
In February, former Brazil worldwide full-back Alves, 40, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for raping a girl in a nightclub in Barcelona.
The case was met with silence from the Brazilian Soccer Confederation (CBF), the participant’s former golf equipment and former teammates.
Former Brazil coach Tite mentioned he couldn’t “make a judgement with out having all of the details and truthful info” concerning the case.
For Robinho, it has been a dramatic fall from grace.
Having begun his profession at Santos, a workforce made well-known by Brazil nice Pele, Robinho was touted because the successor to the golden era of Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho.
In 2005, Robinho left Santos to affix Zinedine Zidane, worldwide teammate Ronaldo and David Beckham at Actual Madrid.
However though he performed for giant groups in Europe and received two Confederations Cups — in 2005 and 2009 — and a Copa America in 2007, Robinho solely displayed his expertise intermittently.
In 2009, he was briefly detained in England for an alleged sexual assault on a younger girl, however the costs had been dropped after an investigation.
He returned to Santos in 2020, however the membership suspended the deal after strain from followers, sponsors and the media, resulting in the abrupt finish of his profession.
