Dani Alves released from prison on €1 million bail amid rape conviction appeal

The former Barcelona full-back was offered the chance of freedom less than a month after he was jailed for four-and-a-half years for assaulting a woman at a Spanish nightclub on New Year’s Eve 2022.

Alves, who appealed his guilty verdict, had gone to court on Tuesday asking to be released on bail, arguing he had already served a quarter of his sentence while remanded in custody.

Conditions imposed on his release included relinquishing both his Brazilian and Spanish passports to prevent him absconding and an obligation to appear before the court on a weekly basis.

Today's Sport News in 90 Seconds - 20th March

Today’s decision, which was not unanimous among those judges involved and could still be appealed, also forbade Alves from approaching his victim.

Alves was convicted of raping the woman following a three-day trial last month and ordered to pay her €150,000 in compensation.

The 40-year-old father of two learnt his fate after being held in custody for more than a year since his arrest on suspicion of “sexual assault with penetration”.

He had been denied bail after being deemed a flight risk, with Brazilian law meaning its citizens cannot be extradited by the country.

In deciding on the sentence, the court took into account Alves having put up €150,000 in compensation for the victim before the trial, whatever the result. It did not accept his claim that he had been drunk as an extenuating circumstance.

When the trial opened, the woman told the court how the three-time Champions League winner violently assaulted her in a nightclub toilet.

The victim, who was 23 at the time of the attack, ratified her initial accusation made before police and at a pre-trial hearing in Barcelona, in which she said that Alves had pushed and hit her before raping her without protection.

Her voice was distorted and a screen put in place so that Alves could not see her as she gave evidence.

The prosecution said that Alves met the woman in the VIP area of the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona and that, after buying her and her friends a drink, he beckoned her to join him in a bathroom, the only area of the club not covered by cameras.

Once inside, it is alleged that Alves demanded oral sex and, when the woman refused, he slapped her, insulted her and raped her before leaving the club with his companion.

A friend of the victim, who had been in Sutton that night, told the court: “She told me that he had hurt her a lot and that he had ejaculated inside her.”

The witness said that Alves had been “very slimy” in the booth where the victim and herself had been sitting, adding: “He put his hand on my back; he almost touched my bottom.”

Later, she said she had found the victim in a distraught state in the toilet and convinced her to tell the nightclub staff what had happened. The victim reported the incident that night and underwent a medical examination the prosecution claims showed injuries compatible with a rape.

According to forensic evidence from the pre-trial hearings, the woman continues to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the alleged attack.

Alves’s lawyers said that the former footballer could not be guaranteed a fair hearing as he had been subjected to a “trial by media” over the past year, but the complaint was rejected.

The former full-back had initially denied knowing his victim in a television interview but later admitted he had sexual intercourse with her, claiming it was consensual.

He then told Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia that he had originally lied because he was afraid his wife Joana Sanz would leave him.

On the final day of his trial, Alves denied raping the young woman when taking the stand.

“If she wanted to leave, she could have left, she was not obligated to be there,” he told the court, adding that “at no time” had the victim asked to leave.

Alves denied hitting her and grabbing her hair, protesting: “I am not a violent man.”

Separately, prosecutors were investigating the distribution of a video identifying and vilifying the alleged victim.

Alves’s mother and others connected to the footballer posted a reel on Instagram with the apparent intention of demonstrating that the woman was lying about the alleged rape in order to gain fame and a monetary compensation.