The former Brazilian football player Dani Alves has been acquitted of a rape conviction after a successful appeal. The Catalonia region’s top court reversed the original verdict, citing “inconsistencies and contradictions” in the case against the ex-Barcelona star.
Dani Alves was initially found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in February last year. The court sentenced him to four years and six months in prison, following a trial that delved into the events of New Year’s Eve 2022.
According to the prosecution, Alves raped the victim in a bathroom at a luxurious Barcelona nightclub. He, however, maintained his innocence throughout the three-day trial. Despite the conviction, Alves sought justice through the appeals process, which ultimately overturned the ruling.
On Friday, Catalonia’s appellate court declared that there was “insufficient evidence” to disregard Alves’ presumption of innocence. The judges highlighted discrepancies between the victim’s testimony and video evidence recorded before the incident occurred.
The appeal court noted significant differences in the victim’s account compared to the footage obtained from the nightclub. The video captured interactions between Alves and the woman prior to them entering the bathroom. Judges argued that this evidence cast doubt on the victim’s claim that she was forced into non-consensual sex.
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Following the initial conviction, Alves paid €1 million in bail to secure his release in March last year. The amount, equivalent to £930,000 at the time, was accompanied by the surrender of his Brazilian and Spanish passports due to concerns he could flee the country.
Alves, now 41 years old, was incarcerated from January 2023 until his release in March 2024. With the overturned conviction, all travel restrictions have been lifted, allowing him to leave Spain. However, prosecutors may still appeal this decision before Spain’s Supreme Court.
The trial garnered widespread attention as the first major case under Spain’s revamped laws on sexual crimes. Known as the “only yes means yes” law, the legislation redefined consent as an explicit agreement, with silence or inaction no longer acceptable as indicators of consent.
This law came in response to public outcry after the 2016 San Fermin bull-running festival gang-rape case, where initial leniency for the perpetrators sparked nationwide protests.
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