Soccer - Pele's son to serve drug-related prison sentence, lawyer says

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - The son of soccer great Pele has pledged to turn himself over to police after a court ruled he must serve almost 13 years of a 33-year drug-trafficking sentence, his lawyer told Reuters on Friday.

"He is going to turn himself in as soon as the decision is in the system," Eugenio Malavasi, lawyer for Edinho, said. 

A former goalkeeper for Pele's club Santos, Edinho was found guilty of drug trafficking and money laundering in 2005 but has been fighting the charges ever since. Edinho has said he was friends with the other accused in the case, but he was never personally involved in any act of money laundering or drug trafficking.

"I am very frustrated because I am being accused of money laundering and I never did that, there is no evidence of that. The argument is about my friendship with the other accused, and I never denied that, but I never laundered money." said the accused.

Pele's 44-year-old son was arrested in Brazil in 2014 after losing an appeal in a money laundering case involving a drug gang. He was convicted earlier and sentenced to 33 years in prison for laundering money for the gang.

A judge heard his appeal against the original on Thursday and reduced it to 12 years and 10 months. His lawyer maintained that Edinho, whose full name is Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, was innocent and would continue to fight the charges.

Pele, 76, is considered the greatest player of all time and helped Brazil to win three World Cup titles.

(Reporting by Eduardo Simoes, writing by Andrew Downie; Editing by Clare Fallon)