Former Barcelona star Dani Alves cleared of raping woman at nightclub after appeal

DANI ALVES has been cleared of rape following a successful appeal.

The former Barcelona star was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison after being found guilty of raping a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022.

He was ordered to pay £130,000 to the victim and stay away from her for nine-and-a-half-years.

Alves, who has been on bail since March last year, appealed the decision as he claimed the sex was consensual.

The Catalan High Court of Justice have overturned his conviction over “inaccuracies and inconsistencies” that were found.

A court statement read: “The Appeals Section of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia has unanimously upheld the appeal of footballer Dani Alves, who was sentenced by Section 21 of the Provincial Court of Barcelona to 4 years and 6 months in prison for a crime of sexual assault on a young woman in a Barcelona nightclub on December 31, 2022.

“The full bench of the Appeals Section, composed of judges María Angels Vivas, Roser Bach, Maria Jesus Manzano, and judge Manuel Álvarez, does not share the conviction expressed by the Barcelona Court and points out that its exposition contains ‘a series of gaps, inaccuracies, inconsistencies, and contradictions regarding the facts, the legal assessment, and its consequences.

“The court thus dismisses the appeals of the prosecution – which requested the partial annulment of the sentence and, alternatively, an increase in the penalty to nine years – and of the private prosecution – which sought to raise the penalty to 12 years – and acquits the defendant, nullifying the precautionary measures imposed.”;

The appeal judges ruled Dani Alves’ accuser was an “unreliable complainant”; as shown by video evidence and the fact she denied a sexual act had taken place which had been corroborated “with very high probability”; by DNA tests.

They added: “It cannot be concluded that the standards required by the presumption of innocence have been met.

“The trial court's ruling uses the term credibility as a synonym for reliability in its analysis, and it is not.

“Credibility corresponds to a subjective belief, which cannot be verified, associated with the person giving the statement.

“Reliability, on the other hand, pertains to the statement itself.”;