Robinho, 40, was arrested Thursday after losing a last-minute court bid to delay serving his nine-year sentence for raping a woman a decade ago.

He was incarcerated in Tremembe prison, 150 kilometers (93 miles) from Sao Paulo, prison officials said in an email to AFP.

The former Brazil international, Robson de Souza, popularly known as "Robinho", 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.

He lost an appeal in 2020 and 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 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.

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