Italy has asked Brazil to hand over soccer star Robinho to serve nine years in prison for the gang-rape of an Albanian woman in a Milan nightclub.
The former Manchester City star, 38, was convicted in 2019 of the attack on the 23-year-old in 2013 when he was playing for AC Milan.
The Brazilian international, real name Robson De Souza, has appealed the sentence, but it has been upheld by several Italian courts, including the highest court of cassation in January this year.
Now the Italian Ministry of Justice has written a request to Brazil to extradite Robinho along with his friend Ricardo Falco, who was also convicted in the case.
The Brazilian constitution does not allow their citizens to be extradited from their home country.
Italy has asked Brazil to hand over soccer star Robinho (pictured) to serve nine years in prison for the gang-rape of an Albanian woman in a Milan nightclub
The former Manchester City star, 38, was convicted in 2019 of the attack on a 213-year-old in January 2013 while playing for AC Milan (pictured in March 2013)
After the charges were first laid, a Brazilian newspaper revealed the contents of wiretapped phone conversations the footballer had with friends, including one in which he tried to laugh off the charges.
“I laugh because I don’t care,” Robinho was heard saying. ‘The woman was completely drunk. She doesn’t even know what happened.’
The allegations date back to 2013, when Robinho was 28 years old and playing in Serie A for AC Milan.
On the night of January 22, the footballer and a group of at least six people, including his wife, had been drinking at the Sio Café nightclub in the city.
It was there that they met the Albanian woman who was celebrating her birthday with some of her friends.
At some point during the evening, Robinho walked home with his wife before rejoining his friends at the club where they began drinking with the woman.
The woman says that Robinho, who was supposed to celebrate his own birthday three days later, and his friends forced her to drink until she was almost unconscious.
That’s when they took her into a private dressing room where Robinho and Falco sexually assaulted her while the other four men looked on.
Robinho has repeatedly denied the allegations, claiming the sex was consensual and that his only regret is cheating on wife Vivian (pictured together)
Robinho and Falco then ‘shared’ the woman with the other four men, Italian media reported at the time.
The sportsman was arrested and questioned over the allegations in 2014. He admitted to having oral sex with the woman but claimed it was consensual.
After questioning, police tapped Robinho’s phones and recorded conversations in which he bragged about the attack to his friends.
During the investigation, four of Robinho’s friends, who were allegedly involved in the attack but have never been identified, left the country for Brazil.
That same year, Robinho left Italy to return to play for his boyhood club Santos, and Falco also left the country.
The pair were tried in absentia in November 2017 and found guilty of rape, with judges handing down a sentence of nine years.
During sentencing, the judges made it clear that ‘contempt’ for the victim shown in wiretapped calls was an aggravating factor.
“Particular negative emphasis must be placed on the tone and expressions used to comment on the events, where the girl is described with humiliating epithets and often in crude and contemptuous terms,” they said.
At the time of the attack, 28-year-old Robinho was playing in Serie A for AC Milan (pictured) but returned to Brazil before the charges were brought to court
‘The defendants even laughed several times at the event, thereby highlighting an absolute contempt for the condition of the victim, who was subjected to repeated humiliations, as well as acts of sexual violence through particularly invasive assaults.’
The couple have also been ordered to jointly pay the woman $73,000 in restitution.
The footballer came through the academy of Brazilian club Santos, where he was often compared to Pele as one of the best prospects they had produced.
He played for Real Madrid and Manchester City before a loan spell at Milan between 2013 and 2014, and also had one cap.
After the allegations against him surfaced in Italy, he returned to Brazil and also spent time playing in Turkey.
In 2020, he moved back to Santos, where he would see out his career playing for minimum wage.
But Santos was forced to cancel the contract amid an outcry over the rape case, with a major sponsor dropping its support for the club.
In an interview shortly after the club tore up his contract, Robinho continued to deny the rape allegation – and said his only regret from the night was cheating on his wife, Vivian.
Asked about the pressure that had prompted Santos to tear up his contract, he replied: ‘Unfortunately there is this feminist movement.’