The Brazilian judiciary refuses to confiscate Robinho’s passport

The Supreme Court of Justice (STJ) of Brazil refused to withdraw the former football player’s passport Robinho, in the framework of the open process for the equalization of the nine-year prison sentence he received in Italy for a the crime of rapethe court reported.

The president of the STJ, judge Maria Thereza de Assis Moura, rejected the appeal of the Brazilian Union of Women, a civil association present in 25 of the country’s 27 states, which requested this measure because of the “risk” that Robinho would leave national territory.

The organization claims that the case has “extreme social importance, given that there would be noticeable impunity for football players in cases of sexual violence,” the verdict states.

However, the judge dismissed the request, deeming his analysis “premature” as the process is still in its infancy and the former Real Madrid, Manchester City and Milan player has not yet been called to testify.

This decision comes as part of the process initiated by the STJ for Robinho to serve a nine-year prison sentence in Brazil imposed by the Italian judiciary, which found him guilty of participating in the gang rape suffered by a young Albanian woman in a nightclub in Milan in 2013.

Likewise, the Brazilian judiciary initiated the process of standardizing the sentence received by one of the former attacker’s friends, Ricardo Falco, also convicted of the same crimes.

The Brazilian Constitution does not provide for the extradition of citizens, but it provides that a citizen convicted abroad, as is the case, serve the sentence in the country, if the process is in accordance with the appropriate law and if the sentence does not exceed thirty years in prison.

Robinho (39) lives in the city of Santos, the home of the club where he started his sports career and from which he made the jump to European football in 2005, to Real Madrid.