Dani Alves asks the courts to revoke the provisional prison and assures that he will not flee

The priority of Dani Alves, accused of raping a 23-year-old girl at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona, ​​is to leave jail as soon as possible, where he has been staying for ten nights, and regain his freedom. His new lawyer, the criminal Cristóbal Martell, has formalized this Monday before the Barcelona Court the appeal against the provisional prison order that the judge issued last Friday, January 20. The former FC Barcelona winger has been behind bars ever since for risk of flight. The defense strategy involves convincing three magistrates of that higher instance that Alves does not intend to leave Spain and that he will always remain at the disposal of justice until the oral hearing is held. The lawyer has requested to replace provisional detention with other precautionary measures that are less burdensome for the footballer.

The judge investigating the alleged sexual assault, which occurred in the restrooms of the VIP area of ​​the nightclub at dawn on December 30 last year, ordered Alves to be remanded in provisional prison for one of the three reasons provided by law in Spain. : risk of escape. The resolution maintains that the soccer player could be tempted to escape because the penalties associated with the crime of rape are high (from four to 12 years in prison) and because, he recalls, he has enough economic capacity to try. The magistrate of the trial court number 15 of Barcelona adds that he lacks roots in Spain -because he is a member of the Pumas de México soccer club, which terminated his contract after learning of his imprisonment- and that he has Brazilian nationality, a country with that there is no extradition agreement.

The prison order adds that the evidence of crime is more than sufficient, that the victim’s statement was emphatic and coherent and that of Alves, on the other hand, confused and contradictory. The player changed his version up to three times, with the addition that none of these accounts coincides with the evidence analyzed by the Mossos d’Esquadra: the nightclub’s security cameras, the biological remains found in the victim’s body and the presence of up to seven fingerprints in the sinks.

Alves’ defense has avoided filing an appeal for reform before the magistrate who made that decision. He has opted, instead, for an appeal before a higher instance, the Barcelona Court, which must make a decision after hearing the parties in the process (the Prosecutor’s Office and the victim’s lawyer). The footballer wants to distort the risk of flight and for this he has offered a range of alternative precautionary measures, as well as documentation that he certifies that he has a place in Barcelona where he can remain while the process lasts.