The magistrates of the Barcelona Court reject the footballer’s appeal against the judge’s decision to send him to prison for rape
Dani Alves has to continue in prison. The third section of the Barcelona court on Tuesday decided that the footballer should remain in prison. Justice has rejected the appeal of the footballer’s defense and has confirmed the situation of pre-trial detention and without bail.
The court considers that “he shares with the allegations that there is a high risk of flight, coupled on the one hand with the high penalty that can be imposed in the present case, the serious indications of crime against him and the great economic capacity”. that would enable him, as We have said, to leave Spain at any time.
The subdistrict court also rules out that the alternative measures for pre-trial detention proposed by the defense are sufficient to neutralize the flight risk described by us as high. “Imposing a bond, however great it may be, does not imply any link with the trial of someone who has a great heritage, as we have already indicated,” said the prosecutor. According to him, the periodic presentations before the courts and the withdrawal of the passport “are not a sufficient guarantee”. “Nothing would prevent Alves from leaving Spain by air, sea or even land without papers and arriving in his country of origin and nationality and staying in Brazil without that passport, knowing that it would not be up to Spain delivered or through international arrest warrants. extradition.”
“We also cannot accept telematics equipment as a neutralizing measure of flight risk. These are not intended to locate the person who installed it, but to protect the victim and avoid violating a restraining order. As the prosecutor rightly pointed out, these devices do not interfere with border control, which would be important,” the court said. “Although there are such devices in other countries and they could be a useful tool to avoid pretrial detention, in Spain they are not provided or do not have the function of geolocation of the persons under investigation that the defense claims,” he concludes. .
The Provincial Court held a hearing last Thursday to rule on an appeal lodged by the former Barca and Sevilla player asking for his provisional release. In the third part of the provincial hearing, the case was discussed with the lawyers of the parties. Neither the victim nor the alleged rapist were present.
Alves, who is suspected of assaulting a 23-year-old girl in a nightclub in Barcelona on December 30, has been behind bars since January 20. His lawyer, Cristóbal Martell, appealed the order ordering him in prison. The investigating judge number 15 in Barcelona decided to send him to prison when it saw signs of crime and because of the high risk of escape. There were two arguments for the magistrate to see a flight risk: her economic standing and the lack of extradition agreements between Spain and Brazil. The Court of Barcelona upholds these arguments.
The girl’s lawyer who sued the footballer and the Public Prosecution Service rejected his release, while the alleged rapist’s lawyer defended his release. The Public Prosecution Service and the victim’s lawyer argued that there is still a flight risk. The footballer has businesses in Brazil, where his children live. The victim and the Public Prosecution Service fear a new case like that of Robinho. The former Madrid and Milan player was convicted of rape in Brazil but has never served his sentence as he lives in Brazil and has not been extradited. The lawyer also argued that a release just one month after entering prison “would be an attack on the psychological integrity of the victim”. “What is not possible is that he is free while the victim has to be locked up,” says the victim’s lawyer, Ester García.
According to the Public Prosecution Service, there are “sufficient indications of committing a crime of assault with penetration and a serious risk of flight”. The Public Prosecution Service believes that “there is a serious risk of escape because Alves has Brazilian nationality, has very high assets that would allow him to secure his escape and does not have sufficient roots in Spain.” “The alternative measures proposed by his defense are not sufficient to guarantee his availability to the Spanish courts during the hearing of the case,” he concluded.
Alves’ lawyer, on the other hand, tried to prove that there is no flight risk. The argument he put forward is that Alves from Mexico, where he played, voluntarily returned to Barcelona to testify before the Mossos and the investigating judge. He also offered some measures to prove that he will not flee, such as handing over his two passports (Spanish and Brazilian), wearing a telematics bracelet to be reachable at all times, in addition to appearing in court periodically. Martell emphasized that his client has roots in Spain, where he has been registered since 2010. One of the arguments he puts forward is that he is married to a Spanish woman. All these measures have been rejected.
On the merits of the case, whether there was an offense or not, the Brazilian winger’s lawyer pointed out that “there are reasons to doubt”. Martell lamented the “early judgment” against his client. Alves is accused of assaulting and raping a 23-year-old girl at Sutton nightclub in the Catalan capital. The events took place on December 30. First she said that she did not know the victim, then that she ran into her in the local toilets, and finally that there were relations, but consensual and that she was the one who performed fellatio on him. The DNA tests dismantle this third version, as the rest of the footballer’s semen has appeared in the girl’s vagina. It has been established that there was penetration, according to the victim. Martell disputed the victim’s version. His interpretation of the facts is that there was consensual sex. He argued that the girl showed no vaginal lesions. Of course, for the first time in court, he admitted to penetrative sex, with consent. The victim says it was rape. The newspaper Ara published yesterday that the footballer would have adapted his version again. The fifth claims that she is the aggressor and the Brazilian the victim, and that if she had not defended her until now, it was to protect the girl. “I wanted to protect the lady,” said the player.
Source: La Verdad
I am Shawn Partain, a journalist and content creator working for the Today Times Live. I specialize in sports journalism, writing articles that cover major sporting events and news stories. With a passion for storytelling and an eye for detail, I strive to be accurate and insightful in my work.
