Brazil’s federal public ministry agreed on Monday with a request from the Italian judicial system, which sentenced former player Robinho to nine years in prison for rape and asked the former soccer player to serve his sentence in Brazil.
“There is no legal bar to the execution of corporal punishment,” said a letter from Deputy Attorney General of the Republic Carlos Frederico Santos to the Supreme Court (STJ). The Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
The Public Ministry’s report, at the request of Judge Maria Teresa de Asis, the STJ investigator in the case, is the first step toward the recognition of the conviction in Brazil. “It is impossible to extradite Robinho to Italy” due to the constitutional principle in Brazil, on February 17, the Italian justice system officially issued a request to “synchronize the sentence”, according to the Public Ministry.
The Deputy Prosecutor pointed out that the approval was given “on the principle that two punishments should not be applied to the same offence”.
As for Robinho, Santos said the former player “will be notified at the indicated home address”. In October, Italy requested the extradition of the former Real Madrid and Milan striker for the 2013 gang-rape of a young Albanian woman in Milan.
Robinho allegedly forced the 23-year-old woman to drink until she passed out and then forced her to have sex with a group of friends in a nightclub locker room when she was unable to resist, according to investigations.
The events took place when the footballer was under contract with AC Milan, where he stayed for four seasons (2010-2014).
The Italian Supreme Court finalized the nine-year prison sentence handed down by the Milan court and was upheld by the Court of Appeal.
Apart from Robinho, his friend Riccardo Falco – who was sentenced to nine years in prison in Italy – and four unidentified men were involved in the rape.