By Safiu Kehinde
Former Manchester City and AC Milan forward, Robinho will embark on a nine-year jail term following his failed rape conviction appeal.
The 37-year-old Brazilian was convicted over his involvement in a rape scandal which dates back in 2013. He was arraigned to court alongside his friend, Ricardo Falco, in 2017.
The incident, which occurred four years before the arraignment, had to do with a gang rape of a 22-year-old Albanian woman at Sio Café nightclub in Milan in January 2013.
The lady was reportedly given excessive amount of alcohol with Robinho, who was then playing for AC Milan, and five other Brazilian men alleged to have raped her in the process.
Meanwhile, Robinho’s appeal effort to clear his name off the case have been proving abortive since 2017 game the jail sentence was given. The Brazilian denied his involvement, but his claim was not enough to clear him off the scandal. Though the case did not disturb his playing career, but it kept hammering at the Italian Court of Appeal.
After much alterations, the case however seemed to have gotten to its peak as the Italian top court remained adamant about a change of its decision.
Italy’s highest court, on Wednesday, upheld the original nine-year sentence, as confirmed by judges at the Court of Cassation in Rome.
Meanwhile, the court is likely to request that both Robinho and his friend, Falco serve their imprisonment at Brazilian jail due to the country’s extradition laws.
Robinho, who also had a stint at Real Madrid, made a return back to his boyhood club, Santos after leaving Turkish side, Istanbul Basaksehir. He was placed on a tiny salary of £50k per week.
Unfortunately for Santos, Robinho’s rape scandal cost them their T-shirt sponsorship after the withdrawal of Orthopride — a dental gadgets manufacturer who claimed to have withdrawn their sponsorship ‘in respect to women who used their products.’
