Former Brazilian soccer player Robinho will remain imprisoned in a Sao Paulo prison, where he is serving a nine-year sentence for gang rape, after Brazil’s supreme court denied his defense appeals seeking his freedom.
The judges of the Supreme Federal Court (STF) formed a majority of 9-2 on Tuesday against the requests of the former Real Madrid and Seleção attacker, who since last March has been serving in his country a sentence issued in Italy in 2017, reported the Cut this Wednesday.
Robinho’s defense had denounced alleged procedural irregularities in the Brazilian justice system but their arguments “do not reveal the occurrence of illegality or abuse of power,” the STF judge in charge of the case, Luiz Fux, wrote in his decision.
The 40-year-old former player surrendered to the police in March in the city of Santos, near Sao Paulo, after the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) approved the sanction imposed in the Italian offices.
After the arrest, Robinho’s lawyers filed two habeas corpus in which they questioned the competence of the STJ, guardian of the uniform interpretation of federal laws, to order the beginning of the execution of the sentence.
They were also against the fact that their client had been arrested even though, according to them, judicial remedies have not been exhausted.
In addition, they objected to the constitutionality of the migration law between Italy and Brazil that allowed the validation of the sentence.
Italy resorted to this bilateral agreement because the Brazilian Constitution prohibits the extradition of its citizens.
The magistrates, in a virtual vote, rejected those requests on Tuesday, so Robinho will remain in prison.
“There is no violation, by the STJ, of constitutional, legal norms or international treaties,” said Judge Fux.
Robinho was convicted in Italy in 2017 for gang raping a young Albanian woman who was celebrating her 23rd birthday at a Milan nightclub. The sentence was ratified in 2022.
The former attacker, who at the time of the rape was playing for AC Milan, defends his innocence and alleges that the relationship with the young woman was consensual.
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