Brazilian star Robinho played for Italian club AC Milan in 2013, involving a gang rape case, the Italian Supreme Court on Wednesday (19th) upheld the original judgment, 37-year-old Robinho ultimately failed to appeal and was sentenced to 9 years in prison.
However, since Brazil does not have extradition regulations to the outside world, it means that he will eventually go unpunished.
According to the facts of the case, in January 2013, Robinho and five other Brazilians poured alcohol, drugs and gang rape on a 23-year-old Albanian woman at Sio Cafe nightclub in Milan, Italy. The transcript of the local police intercepting Robinho's text message with his friends was published in court. He wrote: "I was laughing because I didn't care, the woman was completely drunk and had no idea what was going on.
He was sentenced to nine years in prison in the first instance of an Italian court in November 2017, when Robinho was in Brazil. According to local law, suspects are not required to serve their sentences until the appeals process is completed. In December 2020, when his first appeal failed, the Milan Court of Appeal accused Robinho of "looking down" and "cruelly insulting" the victim and conspiring with friends to provide false confessions in an attempt to mislead investigators.
He then appealed the final appeal, and the Italian Supreme Court upheld the original judgment as final. Robinho's friend Falco faces the same situation, with the remaining four leaving Italy before being indicted and convicted. Since Brazil does not have regulations on the extradition of its own nationals, it is still unclear whether Robinho will serve his sentence in Italian or Brazilian prisons, or even go unpunished.
The BBC estimates that Robinho is currently in Brazil and that it is almost impossible for him to serve his sentence in Italy. Brazil's national constitution prohibits nationals from being extradited to foreign countries, although Italy could require Robinho to serve his sentence in Brazil.
Robinho has represented the Brazilian national team 100 times and has been hailed as one of the most talented players in the kingdom of football. He began his career at Brazil's veteran club Santos, joining Real Madrid in 2005 and winning la Liga twice in four years. In 2008, he moved to Manchester City for £32.5 million, setting a record for England's highest transfer fee at the time, but failed to make a deep mark on The England world and was loaned back to Santos in January 2010.
He later moved to AC Milan and won the Serie A title, hoping to be reborn as a player, but was involved in a gang rape case off the pitch. In the summer of 2014, he was loaned back to Santos again, and then joined the Chinese Super League at one point, wearing the jersey of Guangzhou Evergrande (now known as Guangzhou Team), and his career has since declined sharply. Even though he was convicted of gang rape in 2017, Robinho is still active in the football scene, traveling to Brazilian and Turkish football leagues.