A former star goalkeeper for Brazil s Flamengo football club, Bruno de Souza, was Tuesday sentenced to four years in jail for kidnapping and beating a pregnant girlfriend who later went missing and is now presumed dead.
A Rio court found him guilty of abducting the woman, Eliza Samudio, in October 2009, physically assaulting her and forcing her take abortion-inducing drugs before releasing her.
The judge sentenced him to four years and six months for the crime.
De Souza was undergoing a separate trial in the city of Belo Horizonte for the murder of 25-year-old Samudio, who disappeared in June this year after she was taken to the goalkeeper s home after giving birth.
Prosecutors suspect the footballer had Samudio killed and disposed of the body. They say Samudio had been pressuring De Souza for a DNA paternity test.
Eight other suspects among them De Souza s wife, who was found taking care of Samudio s baby are accused of helping De Souza carry out the alleged crime.
