The Superior Court of Justice (STJ) unanimously denied a request for an appeal by the defense of former football player Robinho and paved the way for the advancement of the request for sentence to be served in Brazil, made by the Italian justice after his conviction for rape in the European country .
The appeal rejected this Wednesday (16) referred to a decision by the case’s rapporteur, Minister Francisco Falcão, who had already denied a request by the player’s defense for the Italian justice to send a full and translated copy of the case file to Brazil. – which would make the process take even longer.
The Special Court, a collegiate body made up of the 15 most senior judges of the Court, was in charge of hearing the appeal, and unanimously denied the request. In practice, Robinho’s defense will now have a period of 15 days (from the formalization of the decision) to present an answer to the Italian government’s request for ratification of the sentence and execution of the sentence in Brazil.
It is important to point out that this Wednesday’s decision concerns only the appeal request on the sending of translated documents to Brazil. The STJ has not yet started the judgment on the process itself, which could make the former athlete serve time in the country.
The crime
Robinho was convicted of raping an Albanian woman in a nightclub in Milan along with five other men. The episode happened in 2013, when he was playing for Milan, one of the main football clubs in Italy.
According to investigations, the victim was unconscious during the rape. However, Robinho and the other convicts claim that the relationship was consensual. The Brazilian did not personally attend the hearings of the Italian Justice.
The final conviction was confirmed on January 19, 2022. At the time, the Court of Cassation of Rome, equivalent to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) of Brazil, determined that Robinho and a friend of his, Rodrigo Falco, serve nine years of imprisonment. prison.
Robinho can no longer appeal the conviction in Italy. The judiciary of the European country even requested his extradition so that he could serve his sentence. However, as Brazilian legislation does not allow the extradition of citizens of the country, the request was denied, and therefore in February of this year he was asked to serve his sentence in a Brazilian prison.
Editing: Rodrigo Durão Coelho
