Former Manchester City and Real Madrid footballer Robinho has been arrested 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 its 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," the police said in a statement to AFP news agency on Thursday night.
Serving jail term
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.
The former Brazil international, now 40, lost an appeal in 2020 and then had his sentence upheld by Italy's highest court in 2022, after which Italian prosecutors issued an international arrest warrant for him.
Brazil does not extradite its nationals, however, and Italy asked that Robinho be made to serve his sentence in his home country instead.
A court in Brasilia agreed on Wednesday, by nine votes to two, and on Thursday, court president Maria Thereza de Assis Moura signed a document paving the way for a warrant to be issued for Robinho's incarceration.
Drunk victim
His lawyers then filed a request to the Supreme Court for a "habeas corpus" ruling allowing him to remain a free man while challenging the latest court decision. That was rejected.
The footballer, who insists on his innocence , told Brazilian network TV Record in an interview broadcast Sunday the sex had been consensual and accused the Italian justice system of racism.
According to the complaint, Robinho and his co-accused had made the young woman drink "to the point of rendering her unconscious and unable to resist" and then had "sexual relations several times in a row" with her.
Authorities' failure
In March 2021, a Milan appeals court found Robinho had acted with "special contempt for the victim, who was brutally humiliated."
Robinho's case and that of former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain defender Dani Alves have sparked criticism over the failure of football authorities in Brazil to condemn violence against women.
In February, former Brazil international fullback Alves, 40, was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison for raping a woman in a nightclub in Barcelona.
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