Dani Alves, a former Brazilian international player serving a four-and-a-half-year sentence in Spain for rape, requested bail on Tuesday while his appeal is heard.
During a closed-door hearing in a Barcelona court, his lawyer, Ines Guardiola, argued that the footballer had already spent a quarter of his sentence because he had been in pre-trial prison since January 2023, according to legal sources.
His legal team also requested that he post 50,000 euros ($54,000) on bail or surrender his two passports to ensure that he remains in Spain while his appeal is heard, according to the sources.
Alves, who testified at the session via videoconference from prison, promised the judges that he would not flee and that he believed in the legal system.
Public prosecutors rejected his request, claiming he was a major flight risk.
Alves, 40, one of the world’s most decorated footballers who played for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, was sentenced on February 22 after being found guilty of raping a young woman in a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022. His lawyers immediately contested the conviction.
The victim, who testified behind a screen to shield her identity, claimed that Alves physically pushed her to have sex in the nightclub’s private toilet despite her begging him to let her go, causing her “anguish and terror,” according to prosecutors.
Alves’ lawyers claimed the victim was “glued” to the player while dancing at the nightclub, citing “sexual tension” between the two.
However, the court stated in its 61-page conclusion that this did not imply “that she consented to anything that might have subsequently happened”.