Former Brazilian footballer Dani Alves will remain in prison for at least one more day after he failed to secure the million-euro bail he needed to await release to appeal his rape conviction.
This Wednesday, a Spanish court agreed to release the former FC Barcelona player, who is in the process of appealing a sentence of four and a half years in prison, on bail of one million euros, but, according to the EFE agency, his lawyer told him that this Wednesday is not possible, so he will remain in custody until at least Thursday.
Dani Alves’ accounts have been frozen, so funds will have to come from another source: Barcelona newspaper La Vanguardia reports that the footballer will wait for help from Neymar’s father, his former Brazil teammate.
This morning, the Barcelona Auditorium ruled that the player’s provisional detention could be “avoided by paying a bail of one million euros”, adding that this measure was accompanied by the confiscation of his Brazilian and Spanish passports.
The decision, which one of the magistrates voted against, also obliges the footballer to appear in court weekly.
Prosecutors and prosecution also expressed their opposition to the release of Dani Alves, who has been in custody since January 2023 after he was accused and found guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman in a Barcelona nightclub.
In February this year, the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain footballer was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for raping a young woman in 2022.
Dani Alves, who played for Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus among others, is accused of raping a young woman in a nightclub bathroom in December 2022, although the player, who has given several versions of what happened, has claimed that the relationship was by mutual agreement.
The prosecution asked for nine years in prison for the football player, as well as payment of 150 thousand euros to the victim and freedom under supervision for 10 years after release from prison.
According to the trial, Alves was in a nightclub in Barcelona and met the victim with other people, inviting her to dance and then to a secluded room in a common area in which he forced her to have sexual intercourse.
Dani Alves is one of the most decorated football players in the history of the sport. He won 23 trophies for Barca alone between 2008 and 2016 and was playing for Pumas in Mexico when he was arrested, which led to the club immediately sacking him.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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