The Italian Justice Department is following the decision of the Supreme Federal Court, which this Friday, the 15th, will resume the trial of two habeas corpus requests presented by Robinho's defense. The former player, sentenced to nine years in prison for rape in Italy, is currently serving a sentence in Brazil.
His defense questions the legality of the approval of the Italian sentence by the STJ and seeks to prevent its enforcement in Brazilian territory.
In September, the rapporteur of the case at the STF, Minister Luiz Fux, positioned himself against the habeas corpus requests, arguing that the STJ's decision to execute the sentence in Brazil did not present irregularities.
Minister Edson Fachin also voted against the habeas corpus, while Gilmar Mendes asked for a review, suspending the analysis for three months.
If the Supreme Court rejects the requests, Robinho will remain in prison. If the habeas corpus is accepted, he may respond freely, and a new analysis on the application of the Italian sentence in Brazil will be carried out.
Understand the case
Robinho has been imprisoned in Tremembé II Penitentiary since March 20. As soon as the STJ determined that the former player should serve his nine-year prison sentence in the country, the defense asked for the case to be reanalyzed and argued that it would not be up to the STJ to determine the immediate fulfillment of the sentence without the Italian government or the Public Prosecutor's Office making a statement.
The former player was sentenced by the Italian courts in 2017, with the sentence becoming final in 2022, to nine years in prison for the crime of rape, which occurred in a nightclub in Milan, Italy, in 2013.
The victim was a young Albanian woman named Mercedes. The request for approval and transfer of the sentence submitted by the Italian government was based precisely on the extradition treaty signed with Brazil.
In addition to the habeas corpus request being denied, Robinho's defense also argued for a reduction in the former player's sentence and that the conviction should not take into account the crime committed as "heinous." The argument is that rape is included in the Heinous Crimes Act, but "gang rape" is not.
“The mere approval of the Italian sentence by the STJ is not enough to confer heinousness on the crime, as such classification depends on the express legal provision”, wrote lawyer Mário Rossi Vale, responsible for the document of the request made in May.
*With information from Ansa and Estadão
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