BARCELONA-. Football player Brazilian Dani Alvessentenced to four and a half years in prison for rape, requested his release pending his sentence being final and assured that he would not flee, in a hearing held this Tuesday in Barcelona.
All parties appeared before a court of the Barcelona Court for a brief closed-door hearing, intended to assess the request for freedom from the athlete’s defense, on which the Prosecutor’s Office argued its disagreement.
Alves’ lawyer, Inés Guardiola, stated, for her part, that her client, in provisional detention since January of last year, should not continue in jail.
To do this, he argued, among other arguments, that Alves has already served a quarter of the sentence that the court imposed on him at the end of February – which, in the event of a final sentence, would enable him to begin receiving prison benefits – and he also assured that he did not he would escape, legal sources indicated.
The defense also proposed possible measures to facilitate his departure, such as the deposit of a bond of €50,000 (about $54,000) or the withdrawal of the footballer’s two passports, they added.
Alves, who appeared from prison via videoconference, assured the judges that he would not flee if he obtained provisional freedom and that he believes in justice, the same sources pointed out.
These arguments did not convince, however, the Prosecutor’s Office, which continued to oppose the former FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain player, among other teams, being released, as it considered the risk of escape high.
The decision of the magistrates, which should not take long, will be on this request for freedom and not on the appeals filed by all the parties to the sentence decided by this same court at the end of February, which will be decided later and in another instance. .
After a high-profile trial, section 21 of the Barcelona Court sentenced Dani Alves to four and a half years in prison for having raped a woman in the bathrooms of a nightclub in that Spanish city at the end of 2022.
The sentence also imposed an additional five years of supervised release, a restraining order from the victim for nine and a half years and the payment of compensation of €150,000 (about $163,000).
Source: AFP
