The Barcelona Court releases Dani Alves on bail of one million euros

 

The former player will not be released from prison this Wednesday as he is unable to raise the million euro bail for now.

The Barcelona Court has agreed to provisionally release the former FC Barcelona player Dani Alves, on bail of one million euros, while the appeals against the sentence that sentenced him to four and a half years in prison for raping a young woman in a nightclub in Barcelona.

In an order, which has the dissenting vote of a magistrate in favor of keeping the footballer in prison, the Barcelona Court allows Alves to leave jail if he pays bail, with the obligation to hand over his two passports - Spanish and Brazilian - , not leaving Spain and appearing weekly in court.

Nonetheless, Alves can not leave jail this Wednesday as he is right now unfit to raise the million euros that the Barcelona Court has forced on him as bail.

As sources close to the case have informed EFE, Alves' lawyer met with the footballer this afternoon at the Brians 2 prison to inform him that he has not yet been able to raise the million euros, so he must remain in prison for at least until this Thursday.

The order also prohibits the footballer from approaching less than a thousand meters from the victim's home, her workplace and any other place that he may frequent, as well as from communicating with her by any means.

Reduced risk of leak

The 21st section of the Barcelona Court yesterday held a hearing to resolve Alves' request to be released, which was opposed by the Prosecutor's Office and the private prosecution, on the grounds that the risk of flight persists given his high economic capacity.

The athlete's defense requested that he be released, while the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC) resolves the appeals against the sentence that sentenced him to four and a half years in prison for raping a young woman in the bathroom of the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona. the night of January 30, 2022.

In its order, the Court reasons that, after the sentence of four and a half years in prison imposed on the accused, the risk of escape linked to the severity of the sentence has been "reduced" and, although it admits that a certain danger "persists", This can be "countered" with other measures, such as the imposed bail and the prohibition of leaving Spain.

Another of the elements that the court has taken into account to release Alves on bail is that "the sentence imposed has been significantly reduced" in relation to those requested by the accusations - nine to twelve years in prison - and who has already been in preventive detention for 14 months.

At most, the court argues, his provisional detention could be extended until half of the sentence has been served, but there will be "hardly" a final sentence in that period, he warns.

According to the court, the convicted man, who at yesterday's hearing intervened by videoconference before the court to guarantee that he would not flee if he were free, "has expressed his firm intention to remain at the disposal of the court at all times", as "he has done since the beginning of the procedure".

In that sense, the magistrates recall that Alves traveled to Spain, where he currently has his address, and "voluntarily" surrendered to the authorities when he learned that he was being investigated for rape.

In the wake of reviewing that the goal of temporary detainment "can't regardless be to propel the impacts of a speculative sentence" since this would disregard the Constitution, the court contends that such a troublesome measure should be checked on, when the sentence has been given over in the primary example.

"Each scenario requires its own assessment and also requires the verification of maintenance or, on the contrary, the assessment of the circumstances," maintains the court, which refers to a Constitutional ruling that establishes that time must be considered a "factor "mitigator" when agreeing to preventive detention.

One of the three judges: the risk of flight is reinforced

One of the three judges in the courtroom has disagreed with the majority's opinion and has issued a dissenting vote in which he considers that Alves should be kept in jail, because the risk of escape "has not only been confirmed, but is has been reinforced" with the sentence and the possibility that it will increase when the appeals are resolved.

In his private opinion, Judge Luis Belest states that the "punitive horizon" that Alves had when he entered preventive detention has not changed, since the accusations continue to request between 9 and 12 years in prison for him in their appeals.

He also argues that Alves "continues to have great economic capacity" - only his house in Esplugues was bought for five million euros, he details - and that the million euros imposed as a deposit is the amount that a high-level footballer receives monthly.

Furthermore, he points out that "his personal environment, his family and his friends, the latter with high purchasing power", make it feasible for them to facilitate his departure from Spain, even waiving the million euros deposited as a deposit.

Therefore, remember that Brazil does not hand over its nationals to another country without an extradition treaty and that experience demonstrates the "ease with which any person can evade border controls to place themselves in a situation of unknown whereabouts," even without passports.

The dissenting opinion also alleges that the role of the judges would be "irreparably damaged" if the sentence could not be carried out, after the "enormous" work of investigating the case and the "double victimization" suffered by the victim, and warns that the footballer He has not undergone rehabilitation treatment to ensure that he does not reoffend.