A Court in Rome has rejected an appeal made by the lawyers of the former Real Madrid player, Robinho, against a 9 year prison sentence for sexual violence.
The Brazilian footballer Robson de Souza, Robinho, has been sentenced on Wednesday afternoon to nine years in prison by a Rome Court for a crime of sexual violence that occurred in 2013, when the striker was a player with AC Milan.
His lawyers had filed an appeal against the sentence last December, but the Roman Supreme Court, the highest in the Italian judiciary, has definitively rejected it this Wednesday, which will now see the player and his friend Ricardo Falco, also sentenced to a 9 year term, enter an Italian prison. However, the Italian media is reporting that the player is currently in Brazil.
The first conviction in the case dates back to 2017, when a young woman of Albanian nationality accused the player and Falco for having sexually abused her in 2013, when she was 23 years old. Robinho, declared himself innocent of the charge, stating that the sexual act had been consensual.
The former Real Madrid and Manchester City was playing for the Brazilian team, Santos, at the time but they took the decision to release him from his contract, since which time he has been without a team.
The South American media also say that the player is currently in Brazil, which in principle, could keep Robinho out of prison, as long as he does not cross the Atlantic and set foot in Italy.
A cooperation treaty between Brazil and Italy from 1989 and still in force, prohibits the serving of a sentence from Italy on Brazilian soil. Neither is there and extradition treaty between the two countries.
