The Italian Court of Cassation on Wednesday upheld the nine-year prison sentence for gang rape handed down to Brazilian footballer Robinho, the victim’s lawyer said. The judges of the third criminal section, meeting in Rome, “considered that the appeal lodged by the player was inadmissible and that
the sentence is final “, declared to the press the lawyer of the victim, Jacopo Gnocchi.
“In total, fifteen Italian magistrates considered that the accusations had been amply proven. Our wish is that Brazil carries out the sentence,” he added. According to Italian media, the player is currently there.
The facts date back to January 2013, when Robinho was playing at AC Milan. According to media at the time, Robinho and five of his friends allegedly made a 22-year-old Albanian woman drink “to the point of rendering her unconscious and unable to resist”. They would then have had “multiple and consecutive sexual intercourse” with her.
In the absence of extradition, a sentence served in Brazil?
A court in the Lombard city had found him guilty in 2017 of gang rape on this young woman and sentenced him to nine years in prison. This sentence had been confirmed by an appeal court in December 2020. Robinho had already been briefly arrested in England in 2009, suspected of having raped a woman in a nightclub in Leeds.
The former Real player remains free for the moment, since the Brazilian justice does not extradite its nationals convicted abroad. On the other hand, Italian justice can request that Robinho serve his sentence in Brazil.