A Spanish court authorized on Wednesday the release from prison of Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves if he pays a bail of one million euros (almost 1.1 million dollars), while appeals against his conviction for rape are resolved.
In its ruling, the Barcelona Court agrees to the release of the 40-year-old player “upon payment of a bail of 1,000,000 euros”, after which his Spanish and Brazilian passports will be withdrawn and he must stay away from the rape victim, for which he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison in a sentence that is being appealed by both the defense, the prosecution and the private prosecution.
Shortly after learning of the court’s decision, the victim’s lawyer, Ester García, announced that she will appeal the authorization to release the soccer player, which she considered a “scandal”.
“It seems that justice is being done for the rich,” García said in statements to Catalan radio Rac 1. “It is a scandal that they are releasing a person who they know can get the million euros in no time,” she added.
It is still unknown when the athlete could leave the prison located about 40 km from Barcelona, where he was admitted at the end of January 2023, in case he manages to gather the amount determined by the court.
Mitigating factor
According to the court order, Alves is also imposed a “prohibition from approaching the complainant at a distance of no less than 1,000 meters from her home, workplace and any other place frequented by her, as well as communicating with her by any means or procedure”. He will also not be allowed to leave the national territory and must appear weekly at the Court.
The court’s decision was announced the day after the hearing in which the Brazilian’s defense requested his conditional release while the appeals are resolved, which could take months.
His lawyer, Inés Guardiola, argued, among other things, that her client had already served a quarter of the sentence imposed by the judges at the end of February – which, in the event of a final sentence, would enable him to start having prison benefits – and recalled that the sentence is considerably lower than, for example, the nine years requested by the prosecution.
At the end of the brief hearing, Alves, who appeared from prison via video conference, assured the court that he would not flee and that he believes in justice.
These arguments did not convince either the Public Prosecutor’s Office or the private prosecution, who continued to oppose the release of the former player of FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, among other teams, as they still considered the risk of flight to be high.
But the court, which had supported this reason for rejecting Alves’ demands to be released during the investigation, now estimated that “the passage of time” is a “mitigating factor” of previous criteria, and pointed out that the risk of flight “has diminished”.
Appeals
As with the rest of the process, this latest decision by the court generated a lot of expectation and numerous media awaited at the gates of the prison where Alves is, waiting for news about his possible release.
“Dani Alves can wait at home for the final sentence of a rape because he has a million euros,” the radical left platform Sumar, a member of the coalition government led by Pedro Sánchez, lamented in a message on its X account. “Justice is patriarchal and classist. Enough is enough,” they added.
Following a high-profile trial, section 21 of the Barcelona Court last month sentenced Alves to four and a half years in prison for raping a woman in the bathrooms of a nightclub in that Spanish city at the end of 2022.
The sentence also imposed an additional five years of supervised release, a restraining order from the victim for nine and a half years and the payment of compensation of 150,000 euros (about 163,000 dollars).
One of the most decorated soccer players in history, Alves played for clubs such as Sevilla and Juventus in Turin, as well as being part of the successful Barça of Messi and Guardiola. After his admission to pre-trial detention in January 2023, his team at the time, Pumas de México, terminated his contract.
