Tag: Dani Alves

Former Brazil international Dani Alves is to be released from jail pending an appeal against his rape conviction in a one-million-euro bail agreement denounced by the victim’s lawyer as “justice for the rich”.

The ruling came a day after his lawyer requested the 40-year-old’s release on grounds he had already served a quarter of his four-and-a-half-year sentence in pre-trial detention following his arrest in January 2023.

In its ruling, the Barcelona court granted him “provisional release” in exchange for “the bail payment of 1,000,000 euros” ($1.08 million) also requiring he hand over his Spanish and Brazilian passports, remain in Spain and present himself to court “on a weekly basis”.

But the decision drew a furious response from the lawyer of the young woman who was raped by Alves at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022.

 “I’m very surprised and totally outraged… because it’s like this is justice for the rich,” Ester Garcia told RAC1 radio in the north-eastern Catalonia region and pledging to appeal on grounds it was “not in line with the law”.

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 “It is scandalous that they can free a person who they know can get hold of a million euros in a heartbeat,” she said.

One of the world’s most decorated footballers who played for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, Alves was convicted last month of raping the young woman in the VIP bathroom of Sutton nightclub in the early hours of December 31, 2022.

His lawyers swiftly appealed the conviction.

The court’s decision on Wednesday also bars him from “coming within 1,000 metres (yards) of the plaintiff, her home, her workplace and whatever other place that she is, as well as making any attempt to communicate with her”.

The decision was also swiftly denounced by the radical left-wing Sumar alliance, which is part of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s leftist coalition.

 “Dani Alves can wait at home for his definitive sentencing for RAPE because he has a million euros. The justice system is patriarchal and classist. Enough is enough,” the party wrote on its X account.

Since his arrest 14 months ago, Alves’ legal team has repeatedly asked for his release on bail but the request was always rejected by the court on grounds he was a flight risk.

At Tuesday’s hearing, Alves – who spoke by videoconference from prison – promised the judges he would not flee, with public prosecutors again opposing the request on grounds he posed a high flight risk.

Brazil does not extradite its citizens when they are sentenced in other countries.

The victim, who testified behind a screen to protect her identity, said Alves had violently forced her to have sex in a private bathroom of the nightclub despite begging him to let her go, causing her “anguish and terror”, prosecutors said.

Alves’ lawyers had argued the victim had been “glued” to the player while dancing at the nightclub, saying there was “sexual tension” between them.

But in its 61-page decision, the court said that did not mean “that she consented to anything that might have subsequently happened”.

Dani Alves once said he would “play until I’m 50” if someone threatened his record of trophies won, but his career was brought to a halt in January 2023, when UNAM of Mexico released him after the Brazilian was charged with rape.

He was found guilty of raping a young woman at a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022 and  has sentenced to four and a half years in prison by a Spanish court.

Between his debut for Esporte Clube Bahia in Brazil aged 18 in 2001 and his last game for the Pumas in January 2023 aged 39, Alves played almost 1,000 competitive games for club and country, accumulating trophies.

 “I have the greatest list of honours in the history of soccer, with 43 titles. If someone overtakes me, I’ll play until I’m 50,” he said in June 2022.

His clubs included Barcelona, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain. They coveted Alves because he was, for a long time, one of the best full-backs in the world.

“You have to leave egos aside because if you let them emerge, you stop thinking about being happy,” he told AFP. “In life, you don’t need to be right, you need to be happy. And I’m very happy!”

He came from a poor family in Juazeiro in Bahia State. At the age of ten, he got up at five in the morning with his brother to help his father in the fields, before heading to school.

He made his debut for his local club but was immediately spotted by Sevilla and moved to Spain in 2002.

He spent six seasons with Sevilla, where he won two UEFA Cups, a Copa del Rey and a UEFA Super Cup. Barcelona then bought Alves for 35 million euros.

In his eight-season first spell at Barcelona between 2008 and 2016, Alves won 23 trophies: three Champions Leagues, three Club World Cups, six La Liga titles and four Copas del Rey as well as various Super Cups.

In 2016, he left Barcelona as a free agent for Juventus where he stayed one season, enough time to add a Serie A title and an Italian Cup to his collection and also reach another Champions final, a defeat to old enemy Real Madrid.

Dani Alves jumps on the pile congratulating goal scorer Lionel Messi as Barcelona beat River Plate in the Club World Cup football final in Yokohama in 2015

 “Dani is a crazy, sunny guy who lives his life at 300 miles an hour, always with a smile on his face,” said his Juve team-mate Giorgio Chiellini.

He moved to Paris Saint-Germain in 2017, again as a free agent, to help his old Barcelona team-mate and fellow Brazilian Neymar carry the club to the Champions League.

The mission failed and Alves was limited by injuries. But he still won Ligue 1 titles in both his seasons in Paris, a city he did not enjoy.

 “Paris is a stressful city, I don’t like it very much,” he told GQ Brazil, adding that he did not like the “racists” in France.

He did not back down from racists but also fought back with humour.

In 2014, when he was about to take a corner kick for Barcelona at Villarreal, a banana flew from the crowd. He picked it up, peeled it and ate it before taking the corner as if nothing had happened.

In 2019, Alves returned to Brazil and won the Paulista championship with Sao Paulo.

He returned for a second, brief, spell with Barcelona.

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“Today, it’s time to say goodbye,” he wrote on Instagram on in June 2022 when he left Barcelona for Mexico, evoking “more than eight years dedicated to this club, these colours, this house…”

He made his debut for Brazil in October 2006 and won the last of his 126 caps off the bench against South Korea in the last 16 at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He was an unused substitute as Brazil lost on penalties to Croatia in the last eight.

The World Cup was the one trophy that eluded him. He lost a quarter-final in 2010 and a semi-final in 2014 but missed 2018 with a knee injury.

He won two Copa Americas, the second replacing Neymar as captain in 2019 and, at 38, led Brazil to Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021.

It was his last trophy.

After his arrest his wife, Joana Sanz, broke up with him, posting a letter on Instagram saying: “I love him and always will” but “It’s so hard for me to accept that this person could break me into a thousand pieces.”

Former Barcelona and Brazil football player Dani Alves has gone on trial in Spain accused of raping a woman in a nightclub.

The 40-year-old has been in prison without bail for more than a year since the alleged incident took place in December 2022.

Mr Alves could face up 12 years in prison if found guilty.

He first denied having met his accuser, but later said they had had consensual sex. His trial ends  tomorrow.

More than 30 people, including Dani Alves and his estranged wife, are expected to testify.

The Barcelona court yesterday  denied his request to suspend the trial so that he could be given more time to prepare – rejecting his claim that he had suffered a trial by media.

Mr Alves’s accuser was among those to give evidence on the first day of the trial – speaking from behind a screen to protect her identity.

She alleges he lured her into a toilet in the VIP section of a nightclub in Barcelona, and then forced her to have sex with him.

The woman’s cousin and a friend, who were both with her on the night of the alleged assault, also testified . They said that Mr Alves had groped and flirted with them earlier in the evening.

They also said the woman had initially been unwilling to make a complaint because she feared she would not be believed.

In Spain, a claim of rape is investigated under the general accusation of sexual assault, and convictions can lead to prison sentences of four to 15 years.

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The public prosecutor in the case is seeking a nine-year jail term for Mr Alves, and for him to pay damages of €150,000 (£128,000) to the woman.

His mother, Lucia Alves – who was at the court yesterday  alongside her son – could face prosecution herself after she named her son’s accuser in a social media post before the trial.

That was after a court had ruled that the woman could not be identified for her protection.

Mr Alves was formally charged in August and a court later decided that there was enough evidence to send him to trial.

Repeated requests for him to be released on bail have been denied because the courts considered the Brazilian national a flight risk.

Dani Alves is one of the most decorated footballers in history and has played for a host of top clubs including Barcelona and Paris Saint Germain.

He made more than 400 appearances for Barcelona, winning six league titles and three Champions Leagues across two spells, and was also part of Brazil’s 2022 World Cup squad.

His most recent club, Mexican side Pumas UNAM, terminated the Brazilian’s contract with immediate effect in January 2023.