A Barcelona court has agreed to release Dani Alves on bail if he pays a bond of €1million and surrenders his two passports.
Alves, 40, was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for rape in February.
Ines Guardiola, Alves’ lawyer, filed an appeal against the sentence and requested his release on bail until the final sentencing.
The terms of Alves’ bail state he must surrender his Brazilian and Spanish passports, and he is prohibited from communicating with the victim or going within one kilometre of her. He must also make a weekly appearance at court.
Luis Belesta, the magistrate who dealt with Alves’ sentencing, has stated he disagrees with the bail ruling.
The bail ruling can still be appealed by the public prosecutor’s office and the victim.
Alves was arrested by local police in January 2023 as part of an investigation into sexual assault at a nightclub in Barcelona.
Following a trial last month, Alves was found to have raped a 23-year-old woman on the night of December 30, 2022, at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona. He was sentenced to a four-and-a-half year prison term and a further five years of ‘supervised’ freedom upon release. He has already paid €150,000 (£128k, $163k) to the victim plus legal fees.
Alves cannot communicate with the victim for nine years and six months, or go within one kilometre of her.
Spanish public prosecutors had been seeking a nine-year prison term for Alves.
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“The ruling considers that it has been proven that the victim did not consent and that there are elements of evidence, in addition to the testimony of the complainant, to understand rape occurred,” the court said in a statement.
Ines Guardiola, Alves’ lawyer, said she would appeal the decision, stating last month: “I still believe in Mr Alves’ innocence and we will defend it to the end.”
A member of the victim’s prosecution, David Saenz, said: “We are not satisfied with the sentence.
“We have to consider whether the severity of the sentence is commensurate with the gravity of the facts that have now been proven.”
Alves, who played 408 matches for Barca across two spells, as well as 126 times for Brazil, has been in custody since his arrest on January 20, 2023. Before his trial began on February 5, he had been held in a prison to the north west of Barcelona.
Throughout the investigation, Alves provided different accounts of the events. In a June interview, he confessed to initially giving false information about the incident.
Initially, Alves refuted claims of sexual penetration, claiming that the woman had performed oral sex on him. However, during his second testimony before the investigating judge on April 17 last year, he admitted that sexual penetration did take place, but that it was consensual. Alves acknowledged he had lied in previous statements in an attempt to preserve his marriage.
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(David Zorrakino/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
