A Brazilian high court ruled that former soccer star Robinho must serve his nine-year prison sentence in his home nation as a result of his 2017 rape conviction in Italy.
Lawyers for the 40-year-old Robinho said they will file a request for habeas corpus at Brazil’s Supreme Court so he can remain free while he appeals.
Judges on Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice in the capital city of Brasilia voted 9-2 to validate the conviction of the former Real Madrid, Manchester City and AC Milan striker.
Robinho was sentenced in Italy to nine years in prison for his part in a group sexual assault in 2013 when he played for AC Milan.
Brazil doesn’t extradite nationals, which led Italy to seek his imprisonment in his home nation.
“Brazil cannot be a shelter for criminals,” judge Mauro Campbell Marques said during his vote.
Judges wrapped up their voting in less than a day.
Most Brazilian legal analysts expected the court’s decision to take days, possibly weeks.
The swift decision came on the same day a Spanish court decided that Brazilian soccer star Dani Alves could leave prison if he pays a bail of one million euros ($1.1 million) and hands over his passports while awaiting the appeal of his conviction for raping a woman in Barcelona.
