Convicted footballer Dani Alves freed from Barcelona prison

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Dani Alves, the Brazilian football player convicted of raping a young woman in a nightclub in late 2022, left a Spanish prison on Monday.

Last week, a Barcelona court ruled that he could be released on bail while he appeals his 4 1/2 year conviction.

While it took him days to come up with the €1 million ($1.08 million) bail, the money was deposited on Monday. With that and handing over his two passports to the court, he was free to go.

Alves had been in pre-trial detention since January 2023. Before his conviction, he was deemed a flight risk.

But the court, with one judge dissenting, agreed with his plea to be released after he vowed not to flee amid the appeals process.

In total, he has served around one-quarter of his sentence.

He is also forbidden from contacting or going near his victim and will have to check in with local authorities weekly.

Spanish prosecutors have appealed the decision to allow him to go free, saying he is even more of a flight risk now after having been found guilty of the crime of sexual assault.

Ester Garcia, the victim of his lawyer, told journalists last week that she was “outraged” with the ruling.

“It was very difficult to explain to my client the legal criteria applied to this decision,” she said. “This looks more like justice for rich people.”

She also highlighted the fact that the court lowered his sentence as much as possible because he paid the victim €150,000 in reparations.

Garcia and the victim are also appealing the sentence, arguing that Alves should have his sentence increased.

The victim said that Alves violently raped her and forced her to perform sexual acts in the bathroom in the VIP area of a nightclub on Dec. 30, 2022.

He originally told Spanish media she was lying and that he had never met her. But his story changed several times, and in the end, he argued that he thought it was consensual though he was extremely intoxicated.

Although the former FC Barcelona player is likely celebrating his release, his life on the other side of prison is very different than before the case emerged.

Upon his arrest, the 40-year-old was fired from Mexican football club Pumas, where he was earning a reported salary of $300,000 per month.

Model Joana Sanz, his wife, initially defended him but later talked about divorce as the evidence emerged. Their relationship status remains unknown.