Former Manchester City and Real Madrid footballer Robinho was arrested Thursday in Brazil, after losing a last-minute court bid to delay serving his nine-year sentence for raping a woman a decade ago.

Supreme Court Judge Luiz Fux rejected Robinho’s request for a stay and ruled “the detention order is maintained... so that he can begin serving his sentence.”

Federal Police in the southeastern city of Santos said in a statement to AFP on Thursday night that their forces “carried out an arrest warrant... against Robson de Souza.”

“The prisoner will undergo an examination at the (Medical Legal Institute), a custody hearing and will be sent to the penitentiary system.”  

Popularly known as “Robinho,” the footballer was found guilty by an Italian court in 2017 of taking part in the gang rape of an Albanian woman celebrating her 23rd birthday at a Milan nightclub four years earlier.

Read full story on sport.timesofmalta.cm

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.