Dani Alves, the former Brazilian footballer, has had a rape conviction against him overturned following an appeal.
The top court in Spain’s Catalonia region ruled to quash the original conviction, citing “inconsistencies and contradictions” in the case.
Alves had been found guilty of sexual assault in February of the previous year and sentenced to four years and six months in prison. He consistently denied the charges during the three-day trial.
The initial conviction stemmed from an incident in which Alves was accused of raping a woman in a bathroom at a high-end Barcelona nightclub on New Year’s Eve in 2022.
However, the Catalonian court, in its ruling on Friday, determined that there was “insufficient evidence” to disprove Alves’ presumption of innocence.
The court pointed out that the victim’s testimony “differed notably” from video footage recorded before the woman and Alves entered the bathroom where she alleged the assault occurred.
In March 2023, Alves had paid €1 million (around £930,000) in bail to be released while appealing the conviction, handing over both his Brazilian and Spanish passports after prosecutors argued he posed a flight risk.
Prior to this, he had been incarcerated from January 2023 until March 2024.
Dani Alves days at Barcelona.
With the acquittal, the appeal court has lifted all travel restrictions, allowing Alves to leave the country.
However, the decision remains subject to a potential appeal before Spain’s Supreme Court.
The case was one of the first high-profile trials following Spain’s overhaul of its sex crime laws in 2022, which made consent central to defining sexual offenses.
The change followed a series of protests sparked by the 2016 gang-rape case during the San Fermin bull-running festival in Pamplona.
