“I believe in justice, I won’t run away”: Dani Alves, sentenced to more than four years in prison for rape, asked to be released

The former Brazilian footballer Daniele Alves Last Tuesday he asked Spanish justice to release him on parole until the final sentence after being sentenced to four and a half years in prison for rape. “I believe in justice, I won’t run away“, he declared in court in Barcelona.

All the parties appeared before the court of the Court of Barcelona for a brief hearing behind closed doors, intended to evaluate the request for freedom from Alves’ defence, on which The Prosecutor’s Office expressed its disagreement.

Alves’ lawyer, Inés Guardiola, declared, for her part, that her client, in preventive detention from January 2023he should not continue in prison.

This is why he argued that Alves He has already served a quarter of his sentence which the court imposed on him at the end of February – which, in the event of a final sentence, would have allowed him to start receiving prison benefits – and also assured him that he would not escape, legal sources said.

The defense also proposed possible measures to facilitate his departure, such as posting a bail of 50,000 euros (about $54,000) or withdrawing the footballer’s two passports, they added.

Alves, released from prison via video conference, He assured the judges that he would not flee if he were released provisional and who believes in justice, the same sources underline.

However, these arguments did not convince the prosecutor’s office, which continued to oppose the release of the former player of FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, among other teams, since considers the risk of flight to be high.

The magistrates’ decision, which should not take long, will be on this request for freedom and not on the appeals presented by all parties to the sentence decided by this same court at the end of February, which will be decided later and in another example. .

After a high-profile trial, Branch 21 of the Court of Barcelona sentenced Dani Alves to four and a half years in prison for raping a woman in the bathrooms of a nightclub in the Spanish city in late 2022.

The sentence also includes a further five years of probation, a restraining order against the victim for nine and a half years and the payment of compensation of 150,000 euros (about 163,000 dollars).