Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice (STJ) has rejected a request to withdraw the passport of soccer player Robson de Souza, better known as Robinho, sentenced in January 2022 in Italy to nine years in prison for participating in the gang rape of a young woman in 2013.
The petition was filed by the Brazilian Women’s Union (UBM), which also requested to appear in the case under the figure of ‘amicus curiae’, with which a natural or legal person – without being legitimized as a party – intervenes before a court to collaborate by providing objective information.
However, the president of the STJ, judge Maria Thereza de Assis Moura, has rejected the request to seize the passport of the former Real Madrid and AC Milan player, among others, due to »the lack of legitimacy of the ‘amicus curiae’ to do so»’, as reported by the newspaper ‘O Globo’.
»The ‘amicus curiae’, as a general rule, cannot even appeal against judicial decisions, let alone request the imposition of precautionary measures on the parties,» explained the judge, who has rejected the entry of UBM in the process considering that it is »premature» since Robinho has not yet been summoned.
Thus, De Assis Moura explained that the figure of the ‘amicus curiae’ should be admitted »when its participation is beneficial for the proceedings and for obtaining a fairer and more adequate solution». However, in the case in question, it is even »premature» because the defendant has not yet been summoned.
The STJ received at the end of February 2023 the request of the Italian authorities for Robinho to serve the prison sentence in Brazil, after the last one had failed to extradite him, a measure prohibited by the Brazilian Constitution, which prohibits the extradition of its citizens.
The person in charge now of deciding whether Robinho will serve this prison sentence in Brazil is Judge De Assis Moura, who has a long history of defending Human Rights and against male violence, according to the Brazilian media.
In January 2022, Robinho was convicted along with five other men for the gang rape of a woman in a nightclub in Milan in 2013, taking advantage of the fact that she was unconscious after being forced to drink alcohol in large quantities.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
