What is the so-called “Celebrity Prison” like in which former footballer Robinho will serve a 9-year sentence for rape?

Robinho upon his arrival at the “Famous Prison” (Photo: Fábio Pires/TV Tribuna)

Former soccer player Robson de Souza Robinho entered the Brazilian prison early this Friday where he will serve the nine-year prison sentence imposed by the Italian Justice for participating in a gang rape. The former Real Madrid player arrived at the Tremembé prison, located about 150 kilometers from the city of São Paulo, after midnight and after undergoing the protocol medical examinations.

The P2 of Tremembé has capacity for 584 prisoners between semi-open and closed regime, but currently houses 434 and is known in Brazil as the “Celebrity Prison” for being the place where the Brazilian Justice sends renowned convicts. The Brazilian media assure that the conditions of this Penitentiary Complex are much better than those of other public prisons in the state of São Paulo. Their cells are more spacious, the food is of better quality and they even have access to music and English classes, plus chess or soccer tournaments.

Robinho was arrested on Thursday at his home near the port city of Santos, on whose soccer team he trained as a player, after Supreme Court Justice Luis Fux rejected a habeas corpus request. The former footballer was convicted in Italy in 2017 for a group rape of a young Albanian woman in a Milan nightclub in 2013, but he had lived free until now in Brazil, where the Constitution prohibits the extradition of his nationals.

Robinho will serve a 9-year prison sentence (Mandatory Credit: Action Images / Michael Regan)

However, this Wednesday the Superior Court of Justice, the highest court for non-constitutional matters, decided by a large majority that Robinho serve his sentence in Brazil and ordered his immediate and closed prison.

The Court held that it was not up to it to review the sentence already pronounced by an Italian court or to open a new trial, but only to review whether all the requirements were met to accept Italy’s request for the athlete to serve his sentence in Brazil.

Robinho’s lawyers argued that he should be tried again in the South American country because the Italian sentence could not be applied, an argument that was rejected by the magistrates.

Robinho began his career at Santos, where he scored 106 goals in 249 games, won two Brasileiraos and reached the final of the Copa Libertadores. His performance attracted the interest of Real Madrid, which signed him in 2004. He also spent time at Manchester City and Milan, where the episode for which he ended up in prison occurred. After the rape complaint, he continued playing. He went through China’s Guangzhou Evergrande, Atlético Mineiro and retired in Turkey, where he wore the jerseys of Sivasspor and Istanbul Basaksehir.

In reality, he had a last stage in Santos, but the shadow of the case that put him behind bars was already pursuing him. Upon his arrival, a sponsor broke his contract with the club and they ended up terminating the relationship days later. With the Brazilian national team, he won a Copa América, two Confederations Cups and played in two World Cups (2006 and 2010).

WHAT THE “CELEBRITY PRISON” OF BRAZIL IS LIKE

The prison to which Robinho was transferred after his arrest in Santos

Located about 150 kilometers from the capital of São Paulo, the Tremembé Penitentiary Complex was built in 1948 and, since 2002, it has received prisoners who have committed crimes with great repercussions, which has led it to be baptized by the Brazilian press as the “prison.” of the famous.”

There, conditions are better than in other public prisons in the state of Sao Paulo. The cells vary between 8 and 15 square meters and the food, prepared by around thirty inmates and of high quality, feeds both the prisoners and the complex’s workers, according to Brazilian media.

Inmates can also join music or English classes, in addition to participating in internal chess, poetry or armed matches on the penitentiary’s soccer field, according to Veja magazine.

Even in closed regime, prisoners can work in the unit. Within P2 there are factories that manufacture school desks and chairs, locks and disinfectant tablets for the bathroom, for example. Inmates also have access to theater courses and workshops, such as reading and origami, and to a library stocked with more than 7,500 books.

This is the Tremembé prison gym

The inmates who are there are people who have occupied the main headlines in the country for their crimes and have suffered strong rejection by the ordinary prison population for having committed crimes such as pedophilia, rape or murder of children.

There, Alexandre Nardoni, who threw his 5-year-old daughter from a sixth-floor window, and former doctor Roger Abdelmassih, imprisoned for harassing and raping dozens of his patients, serve his sentence in a semi-open regime. The place also received Mizael Bispo, convicted of killing Mércia Nakashima, and Edinho, Pelé’s son.

In Tremembé Prison II, which currently has a capacity for 408 prisoners, Lindemberg Alves is held, who in 2008 carried out the longest kidnapping ever recorded in the state of São Paulo, which ended with the murder of the young Eloa Cristina Pereira Pimentel, only 15 years old. The brothers Daniel and Cristian Cravinhos are also serving their sentences in this prison, 39 and 4 years respectively, after they shocked the world with the brutal murder of the parents of the former’s girlfriend, Suzane von Richthofen, in 2002. Von herself Richthofen, a crime mentor when she was 19, is being held in one of the complex’s female wards, where she is serving a 39-year sentence in a semi-open regime.

The Tremembé Prison II maintains to this day the features of its original architecture and is one of the few penitentiaries in Brazil that does not have any members of criminal factions among the prison population.

Despite the presence of the Penitentiary Complex, the municipality of Tremembé, with about 47,000 inhabitants and located in the Vale da Paraíba, is on the list of the 29 municipalities that receive the most tourists in the state of São Paulo.

With information from EFE