Robinho is to serve a sentence for rape, which was given by an Italian court in 2017, in Brazil.
Former Manchester City and Real Madrid player Robinho was arrested in Brazil on Thursday after losing a case in which he sought to delay the punishment for raping a woman a decade ago.
The federal police in the southeastern Brazilian city of Santos stated in a release that their forces arrested Robson de Souza, which is Robinho’s legal name.
“The detainee will undergo an examination, an arrest hearing, and will be sent to the prison system,” the police informed.
In 2017, an Italian court found Robinho guilty of participating in a group rape of an Albanian woman celebrating her 23rd birthday at a nightclub in Milan four years earlier.
The 40-year-old Robinho, who has played for the Brazilian national team, lost an appeal in 2020, after which his sentence was confirmed by Italy’s highest court in 2022. Subsequently, Italian prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant against him.
Brazil does not extradite its citizens, but Italy has requested that Robinho serve his sentence in his home country instead.
A court in Brasilia agreed on Wednesday that Robinho should serve his sentence in Brazil. On Thursday, a document was signed allowing a Brazilian arrest warrant to be issued against Robinho.
The footballer, who has proclaimed his innocence, told Brazilian TV station TV Record in an interview aired on Sunday that the woman had consented to have sex, while he accused the Italian legal system of racism.
According to the charges against Robinho, he and his co-accused made the young woman drink so much that she was unable to resist them, and then they had “intercourse several times in succession” with her.
