The former Brazil international Dani Alves has had his conviction for rape overturned on appeal.
In February 2024, a court sentenced Alves to a minimum sentence of four years and six months for the rape of a 23-year-old woman in a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022. As he had already spent more than a year on remand, Alves was released under legal supervision shortly afterwards.
Now the appeal court, presided over by two female judges and one male, has ruled unanimously that the conviction was unsafe because of what it described as a “series of gaps, inaccuracies, inconsistencies and contradictions over the facts, the judicial assessment and their consequences”.
The court added that the victim’s claim that she had non-consensual sex in a VIP bathroom in the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona on New Year’s Eve 2022 was undermined because she was “an unreliable witness” whose testimony could not be verified. “Her story doesn’t correspond with reality,” they decided. In their ruling, the judges also stated that during the trial Alves’s right to the presumption of innocence had been denied.
The prosecution had demanded a nine-year sentence. As part of his conviction, the court ordered Alves to pay €150,000 (£125,000) in compensation to the victim, banned him from approaching the victim’s home or place of work, and from communicating with her by any means for nine years. At the time, the then Catalan equality minister, Tania Vergè, described the conviction as “a milestone” following a series of high-profile footballers being accused of sexual assault and avoiding prosecution.
Alves won dozens of titles with clubs including Sevilla, Barcelona, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain and played 126 times for Brazil, including at three World Cups. He helped Brazil win two Copa Américas and an Olympic gold medal.
The defender played for Barcelona from 2008-16, briefly rejoined the club in 2022 and still has a residence near the city. Alves was with the Mexican club Pumas when arrested and immediately had his contract terminated.