Robinho has been taken into custody by Brazilian police after his rape conviction in Italy was ratified by the Brazilian authorities. He will spend nine years in prison, according to his setence.
The ex-Manchester City, Real Madrid and Milan star had been avoiding justice in Italy for several years after he was found guilty of rape for an incident in 2013 in Milan. He defends his innocence, but the Italian courts found otherwise.
Brazil does not have an extradition policy, hence he was able to live freely until now, but on Wednesday the Supreme Court voted in favour of transferring his sentence to Brazil, where he will serve his time.
Madrid-based newspaper Marca quoted the phrase ‘hell on earth’ for the prison that Robinho will be placed into. The number of prisoners in the Brazilian system is believed to be well over the capacity of the prisons, with sexual violence, drugs gangs and poor hygiene rampant.
“Overcrowding is a major problem in Brazil’s prisons and nowhere is it more serious than in Pernambuco… The state has locked up tens of thousands of people in wards designed for a third of that number, and has handed over the keys to inmates who use violence and intimidation to manage prison grounds as personal fiefdoms,” Maria Laura Canineu, Director of Human Rights Watch, has previously commented, describing the Federal Prison System.
