A Spanish appeals court has overturned the rape conviction of former Brazilian footballer Dani Alves, ruling that his trial contained “shortcomings” and “inaccuracies.” The decision, announced on Friday, nullifies the four-and-a-half-year prison sentence he received in February last year.
Alves, 41, had been convicted of raping a young woman in the VIP bathroom of a Barcelona nightclub on December 31, 2022.
However, the appeals court stated that the trial contained “a series of gaps, inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and contradictions regarding the facts, the legal assessment, and its consequences.”
The court’s four judges unanimously ruled in favor of the football star’s appeal, leading to the annulment of his conviction. The court also rejected a separate appeal from public prosecutors, who had sought a harsher nine-year prison sentence.
During the trial, the woman testified behind a screen to protect her identity. She told the court that Alves had violently forced her to have sex despite her pleas for him to let her go. Prosecutors described her experience as one of “anguish and terror.”
Alves, however, insisted that the encounter was consensual and denied assaulting the woman.
“I am not that type of man, I am not violent,” Alves told the court when asked by his lawyer if he had forced the woman to have sex.
“If she wanted to leave, she could have left; she was not obliged to be there,” he added.
His lawyers also argued that the woman had willingly danced closely with him at the nightclub before the alleged incident.
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Initially, Alves denied knowing the woman when questioned in a TV interview. However, he later admitted to having sex with her after CCTV footage showed them entering the nightclub bathroom together. He explained that he had lied out of fear that his wife would leave him.
Following his conviction in February, he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison, ordered to pay €150,000 in compensation to the victim, and given five years of probation after serving his sentence. But with the court’s annulment of his conviction, all these measures have now been dropped.
Alves, who was once a key player for FC Barcelona, won the Champions League three times and six La Liga titles with the Spanish club. He also had a successful international career, playing 126 times for Brazil and winning two Copa America titles.
At the time of his arrest, Alves was under contract with Mexican club Pumas UNAM. The club terminated his contract shortly after his arrest.
Before his appeal, Alves was released from jail in March after posting a €1 million ($1.1 million) bail. This decision drew criticism, including from Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who condemned the ruling.
“Money cannot undo the crime that a man commits by raping a woman,” Lula da Silva said at the time.