A court in Barcelona, Spain, announced on Wednesday that former Brazil footballer Dani Alves has been released on bail for €1 million ($1.1m) upon appeal.
Alves, 40, was convicted of sexual assault last month and sentenced to 4½ years in prison, of which he had already served over a year.
His lawyer, Inés Guardiola, fought the ruling and, following a hearing on Tuesday, Alves has been released pending a final resolution in the appeal.
Alves’ release also depends on handing in his Spanish and Brazilian passports, remaining in Spain, and agreeing to weekly court check-ins.
He also must adhere to a restraining order that prevents him from going within 1,000 meters of his victim, her home, her place of work or any other place she is known to frequent.
All parties involved — the defense, the victim’s legal team, and the prosecution — have three days to appeal Wednesday’s ruling.
On Tuesday, Guardiola argued that there was no risk of Alves fleeing the country or destroying evidence. At the same time, the ex-Barcelona player appeared via video link and insisted he was not a flight risk and was prepared to hand in his passports.
The prosecution, meanwhile, demanded a sentence of nine years, complaining that February’s 4½ conviction was not sufficient punishment for the crime committed.
Alves was found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022 following a 13-month investigation — during which time Alves remained in preventative pretrial prison — and a three-day trial last month.
Throughout the trial, evidence was heard from the victim’s friend and cousin, Alves’ friend whom he was with on the night, police officers who attended to the woman, and a forensic psychologist who examined her.
Police said the victim was greatly shaken and told them she had been sexually assaulted by Alves, while the psychologist testified that she was suffering from post-traumatic symptoms, a conclusion that was disputed by an outside expert called by the defense.
Meanwhile, Alves always maintained his innocence, but changed his story five times, eventually saying he did have sex with the victim but that he lied to hide his infidelity to his wife. He later added that he was drunk.
The Alves case was the first high-profile sex crime since Spain overhauled its legislation in 2022 to make consent central to defining a sex crime in response to a swell of protests after a gang-rape case during the San Fermin bull-running festival in Pamplona in 2016.
Source-ESPN
