Star goalie gets jail term for kidnapping ex-lover

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.