Robinho might soon start serving his 9 years sentence for involving in a gang rape in 2013 as Italy’s Justice Ministry issued an international arrest warrant for his arrest.
Robinho, a former Real Madrid, Manchester City, and AC Milan winger reportedly raped a 22-year-old Albanian woman at the Sio Cafe nightclub in Milan in January 2013 alongside four others. During that period, he was playing at AC Milan.
Recall that the Brazilian football star joined AC Milan on August 31, 2010, for a transfer fee worth €21 million after he failed to establish himself at Manchester City which he joined from Real Madrid on September 1, 2008, for a then Premier League transfer record fee worth €43 million.
In 2013, he decided to go clubbing with his friends. While at the club, Robinho and his friends decided to go crazy by getting a lady drunk and then taking turns to rape her.
After a series of back and forth, a court in Italy found the retired footballer and his friends guilty of gang-raping the Albanian woman. The court sentenced the football star to 9 years imprisonment.
Fortunately for the footballer, he was playing for a Brazilian club Atlético Mineiro then. Hence, he was not arrested after the court issued the sentence because the laws in Brazil do not permit the country’s citizens to be extradited.
Robinho appealed against the court ruling which put the initial ruling on hold pending the outcome of the appeal. The footballer used that period to play for Sivasspor and Basaksehir in Turkey.
He returned to Brazil to play for Santos FC on October 10, 2020, less than two years before the court of appeal in Italy turned down his appeal. Hence, the court was not able to order his arrest.
Women rights activists in Brazil frustrated his return to Santos until the footballer had no choice but to retire from football on October 16, 2020. Since then, the footballer remained in Brazil instead of returning to Italy to serve his jail term.
Hence, Italy’s justice ministry had to send an extradition request to the justice ministry of Brazil and an arrest warrant for Robinho’s arrest. As it stands, if the justice ministry in Brazil fails to grant the extradition request, Interpol would have to wait for the moment the retired footballer steps out of Brazil.
According to Daily Mail, Robinho’s defense lawyer in Italy, Franco Moretti, is quoted as saying that the Brazilian is waiting for “the reasons for the sentence of the Cassation.”
“I have no further information”, the lawyer added. “I have no official knowledge of the requests of the Milan Public Prosecutor, I await the reasons for the verdict of the Cassation to understand the reasons for the sentence.”
While Jacopo Gnocchi, the prosecuting lawyer acting on behalf of the accused, said: “We have learned that the Milan Public Prosecutor has forwarded an extradition request to the Brazilian authorities, through the Ministry of Justice.
“The problem, therefore, becomes one of a diplomatic and political nature.
“My client does not care if Robinho will serve the sentence in Italy or Brazil: the important thing is that justice is done until the end and that the sentence, now final, is respected.”
Roberto Carlos, Robinho y Ronaldinho…haciéndola fácil…😵pic.twitter.com/jzQWf1pbxF
— Experiencia GOL (@ExperienciaGOL) February 11, 2022
