Spanish prosecutors will appeal against a decision by a court who has destroyed the rape order of the former Brazilian international footballer Dani Alves.
Alves, a Champions League winner at Barcelona three times, was found guilty of raping a young woman in a bathroom of a Spanish nightclub in 2022 last year. He was sentenced to four and a half year in prison.
On Friday, however, a Barcelona Court of Appeal annulled the first judgment, stating inconsistencies and contradictions in the Alves process.
The court ruled that there was insufficient evidence to prove his debt without reasonable doubt.
The Court of Appeal also described the prosecutor as a “unreliable complainant”, which stated that her testimony “in particular” differed from video images before she and Alves entered the bathroom, where she claimed that he forced her in non-consensual sex.
The office of the public prosecutor in Catalonia confirmed in a statement that it intends to challenge the ruling, but has provided no further details.
🚨🇧🇷 Dani Alves has been acquitted of a crime of sexual violence. The court believes that the young woman’s testimony is not enough to maintain the conviction of the former football player, reports @Diaries. pic.twitter.com/wazz9l7sy7
– Eurofoot (@urofootcom) March 28, 2025
In response to the decision of the Court of Appeal, hundreds of demonstrators gathered in Barcelona in a protest organized by feminist groups on Monday. Many wore signs that convicted the ruling as “unacceptable” and demanded that it was destroyed.
Deputy Prime Minister Maria Jesus Montero said that it was a “shame” that the testimony of a rape victim is still “still questioned” and that “suspicion of innocence is said to have priority about the testimony of young, brave women.”
She apologized later on Tuesday and clarified that she was not going to “question the suspicion of innocence.” However, she claimed that the decision of the Court of Appeal to cancel the conviction of Alves, represented ‘a step back’.
The Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has positioned himself as a feminist, has given priority to the fight against sexual violence. His administration reformed the criminal law of the country in 2022, so that all non-consensual sex as a rape is again defined.
This legal change came in response to the case of an 18-year-old woman who was obtained by the gang by five men during the San Fermin Bull-Running Festival in Pamplona.
Alves, now 41, was imprisoned after his arrest in January 2023. He remained in custody until March 2024, when he was released on a bail of a million euros (£ 853,000) pending the outcome of his profession.
