BREAKING: Former Soccer star Robinho is set to serve 9-year prison term for rape

Brazil’s court decides Robinho’s sentence to nine years in jail is for rape. Italian soccer player found guilty

SAO PAULO (AP) — A Brazilian high court decided on Wednesday that former soccer player Robinho, who was found guilty of rape in Italy in 2017, must spend his nine-year jail term in his own country.

The 40-year-old Robinho’s attorneys announced that they will petition Brazil’s Supreme Court for habeas corpus, allowing him to stay at large while he files an appeal.

The verdict of the former striker for Real Madrid, Manchester City, and AC Milan was upheld by judges in Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice in the nation’s capital city of Brasilia, voting 9–2.

Due to his involvement in a group sexual assault that occurred in 2013 when he was a player for AC Milan, Robinho was given a nine-year jail sentence in Italy.

Italy requested that he be imprisoned in his country of origin because Brazil does not extradite its citizens.

In giving his vote, judge Mauro Campbell Marques stated, “Brazil cannot be a shelter for criminals.”

In less than a day, the judges completed their voting. Most legal experts in Brazil anticipated that the court would take days or perhaps weeks to make a ruling.

The prompt ruling was made on the same day that a Spanish court allowed Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves to be released from prison if he posted a bond of one million euros ($1.1 million) and turned in his passports while his conviction for rape was appealed.