Rio De Janeiro, Oct 6: Brazilian soccer star Edmundo was yesterday reported to have disappeared after a court rejected his appeal against a four-and-a-half year prison sentence for his part in a fatal car crash.Three judges at a hearing in Rio De Janeiro unanimously voted to maintain the sentence, imposed for manslaughter after a December 1995 crash in which three people died, lawyers and parents of the victims said. This meant he was liable to begin his sentence immediately.``It was unanimous. Now he has to serve his sentence,'' said Luis Marcondes, a lawyer representing the victims.Jorge Pontes, a father of one of the people killed, said: ``There is justice in this country.''But television and radio reports said the Vasco Da Gama player, who did not attend the hearing, had vanished after having lunch with his team-mates. He could not be found at his home in a luxury Rio De Janeiro condominium.Vasco were to play Paraguayan club Cerro Porteno in a match last night but Edmundo was a non-starterbecause of injury.Under the terms of the sentence, the enormously gifted but explosive player has to spend the nights in prison but is free to work during the day.Edmundo was originally sentenced in March. His lawyers are expected to appeal again, this time to a higher court in Brasilia, and to ask for him to stay out of prison until the new appeal takes place.Edmundo Alves de Souza's career has been marred by a variety of unsavoury incidents on and off the pitch. Only 10 days ago, Brazilian environmental authorities threatened to prosecute him for feeding beer to a chimpanzee at a party for his son.On Sunday, he shocked television viewers by using foul and insulting language to describe Vasco Da Gama's rivals Flamengo after a match which his team won 1-0. He has been involved in fights on beaches in the Rio De Janeiro area on more than one occasion.On the pitch, he has a long curriculum of red cards and he has been in fights with team-mates, opponents and media representatives alike. Heonce spent a week under hotel arrest in Ecuador after smashing a television camera at the end of a match.His problems have severely affected his international career. He missed out on the 1994 World Cup altogether and in 1998, made only two brief appearances as a substitute.
