Convicted rapist and former Brazil worldwide Dani Alves left a jail close to Barcelona on Monday after posting the one-million-euro bail set by a courtroom to make sure his launch pending enchantment.
The 40-year-old has been in jail since his arrest in January 2023 on suspicion of raping a younger lady within the VIP rest room of a Barcelona nightclub within the early hours of December 31, 2022.
Carrying denims, a white poloneck and black jacket, his face expressionless, Alves walked out of the Brians 2 jail in San Esteban Sasroviras close to Barcelona together with his lawyer, AFP correspondents on the scene mentioned.
He acquired right into a white automobile with out saying a phrase to the hordes of reporters ready close by, simply hours after depositing the sum decided by the courtroom 5 days earlier.
The previous Barcelona participant, one of many world’s most adorned footballers, was convicted final month and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail, together with his legal professionals swiftly shifting to file an enchantment.
However in a shock transfer, the courtroom agreed final Wednesday to conditionally launch him conditionally in change for posting a one-million-euro ($1.08 million) bail, handing over his Spanish and Brazilian passports, staying in Spain and presenting himself to courtroom each week.
Alves had tried to make bail a number of instances since his arrest however his requests had been turned down on the idea he was a flight danger since Brazil doesn’t extradite residents sentenced in different nations.
Alves’ legal professionals are in search of his acquittal, and the enchantment course of might take months to finish.
Prosecutors, nonetheless, need his jail sentence doubled to 9 years.
They and the sufferer’s lawyer Ester Garcia have appealed the choice to grant Alves bail.
“This sends the message that that is justice for the wealthy, and even when there’s a conviction, for those who pay bail there aren’t any legal penalties,” she instructed reporters final week.
“It’s a really harmful message for society,” she added, saying her shopper was “completely outraged, very despondent and really pissed off”.
The courtroom’s choice to free Alves was additionally robustly criticised by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
“We can not keep silent within the face of this injustice,” he mentioned on Thursday, stressing that cash “can not undo the crime {that a} man commits by raping a girl”.
“When intercourse is one thing between two folks, it needs to be agreed to by each of them” and if not, that constitutes “a criminal offense”, he mentioned.
Throughout the trial, the sufferer, who testified behind a display to guard her id, mentioned Alves had violently pressured her to have intercourse regardless of begging him to let her go, inflicting her “anguish and terror”, in accordance with prosecutors current for her declaration.
Alves’ legal professionals had argued the sufferer had been “glued” to the participant whereas dancing on the nightclub, saying there was “sexual rigidity” between them.
However in its 61-page choice, the courtroom mentioned that didn’t imply “that she consented to something which may have subsequently occurred”.
Spain’s leftist authorities handed a brand new legislation in 2022 that strengthens the nation’s penal code towards rape by requiring specific consent for intercourse acts, a transfer lengthy demanded by assault survivors and ladies’s rights teams.
Alves is extensively thought of one of many biggest defenders of all time, having received 42 trophies.
The height of his profession was with Barcelona between 2008 and 2016, alongside Lionel Messi, when he received 23 trophies.
On the time of his arrest, he was contracted to Mexican membership Pumas UNAM. He was sacked quickly after being detained.
(This story has not been edited by News18 employees and is revealed from a syndicated information company feed – AFP)