“Brazil cannot be a shelter for criminals.” Judge Mauro Campbell Marques said it as he cast his vote, and by the end of the day on Wednesday, March 20, 2024, a majority of his colleagues agreed. Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice ruled 9-2 that former striker Robinho must serve in Brazil the nine-year prison sentence an Italian court gave him for rape.
Judges finished voting in under a day. Most Brazilian legal analysts had expected days, possibly weeks.
The path to Brasilia was a roundabout one. Robinho, whose real name is Robson de Souza, was accused of raping a 23-year-old Albanian woman at a Milan nightclub in January 2013. An Italian court convicted him in his absence in November 2017 and sentenced him to nine years. An appeals court confirmed the verdict three years later, and by 2022 the case had gone through the top of the Italian system and been upheld each time. Italy asked Brazil to extradite him that year. Brazil refused, because its Constitution bars the extradition of its own citizens.
Italy tried again in February 2023, this time asking Brazil to carry out the sentence itself. That request rests on a 2017 migration law that lets the Superior Court validate foreign convictions of Brazilian citizens. The court said this was only the second time it had examined such a case.
What the judges said
Francisco Falcao voted first. “There’s no obstacle to validate the execution of his sentence,” he said, noting that a Milan court had confirmed it. “The conviction is final. The defendant was not put on trial in absence in Italy, he had representation.” Falcao also said that diplomatic friction between Brazil and Italy could follow if the sentence went unserved.
Isabel Gallotti called the Italian sentence “long, well-founded and well-reasoned.” Raul Araujo was one of the two dissenters. He argued that Robinho cannot be jailed in Brazil over a conviction handed down in Italy.
Robinho’s lawyer, Jose Eduardo Alckmin, asked for a retrial in Brazil on grounds of national sovereignty. He also said his client would not resist arrest. “If an officer gets there, he will comply,” Alckmin told the court.
The victim’s lawyer, Jacopo Gnocchi, said both he and his client were satisfied. “We respected and we understood that the Brazilian Constitution does not allow the extradition,” he told the news site UOL, “but that does not change the fact that when the sentence is final it is fair… that the sentence is applied.”
Arrest and denials
The court ordered the Federal Court in Santos, where Robinho lives, to issue an arrest warrant. It did so on Thursday, according to Brazil Reports. Robinho turned himself in to police early that evening and was taken to a prison in Santos. Justice Luiz Fux had denied a request to suspend the arrest the same night. Robinho can still appeal to the Supreme Court.
Federal prosecutor Hindemburgo Chateaubriand reminded the judges of recordings obtained by Italian investigators, in which Robinho discussed the case with friends. “I can’t even say all he said because it would be too vulgar for this court,” he said. In one excerpt Robinho said: “that is why I am laughing, I don’t care at all.”
Robinho has always denied wrongdoing and says the sex was consensual. In a TV Record interview that aired days before the ruling, he blamed racism for the Italian verdict. “I played only four years in Italy and I got tired of seeing stories of racism,” he said.
He was 40 at the time of the ruling. Robinho first drew national attention in 2002, at 18, when he led Santos to its first national title since the Pele era. He later played for Real Madrid, Manchester City and AC Milan, where he won the Serie A title, and played for Brazil at the 2010 World Cup. He gave up his passport to Brazilian authorities in March 2023.
Sources
- Brazil court rules Robinho must serve 9-year prison term for rape. Soccer star convicted in Italy
- Brazil court orders Robinho’s arrest to serve 9-year sentence for rape conviction in Italy – Brazil Reports
- Brazilian high court to decide if Robinho will serve prison sentence for rape
