The footballer files an appeal against the provisional prison order
Dani Alves’ lawyer, Cristóbal Martell, has filed an appeal on Monday before the investigating court number 15 of Barcelona, in which he has demanded the release of the footballer.
The Barcelona lawyer has appealed the provisional detention order decreed by the judge on January 20. He has argued that there is no flight risk and that his client is innocent, because according to his version, the relationships in the disco were consented. Alves has spent ten days in the Brians prison, in the province of Barcelona. He is accused of sexual assault on a 23-year-old girl in a Barcelona nightclub on December 30.
The appeal of the former Barça and Sevilla player is based on the fact that there are alternative measures to provisional detention and that there is no risk of escape. The Brazilian soccer player assures that he has roots in the Catalan capital, where he has his domicile and business. In addition, he points out that he has always collaborated with the investigation, since he returned to Spain from Mexico, where he played for Pumas, voluntarily. After declaring before the Mossos, he was arrested and brought to justice.
The footballer’s defense also points out as proof that there is no risk of flight that he undertakes to wear a telematic bracelet, to always be reachable, that he is willing to declare before the judge daily, that he will hand over his passport and pay a million-dollar bail as proof of the will of the footballers to cover any economic responsibility that was determined after the trial. The judge justified her order to imprison him due to the high risk of flight of the soccer player and also due to the high penalty that a conviction of sexual assault entails. Her lawyer is now trying to prove in court that there is no will to flee Barcelona.
On January 24, Alves hired the lawyer Cristóbal Martell, a lawyer who in the past defended Messi or the Pujol family, and is an expert in out-of-court agreements. His first objective is to try to free the footballer, so that he can face the investigation of the case out of prison. Alves is accused of assaulting and raping a young woman at the Sutton nightclub in the Catalan capital. To date, he has given up to three different versions of the events that occurred on December 30. First, he said that he did not know the victim, then that he ran into her in the local bathrooms, and finally that there were relations with her, but consensual. The Brazilian has alleged that he did not admit the relationship at first to try to hide an infidelity to his wife. The victim, on the other hand, has maintained the same version since the beginning of the case. He assured that he followed the soccer player without knowing that they were going to the bathroom. Once inside her, he slapped and raped her.
After Alves’s appeal, the parties will have five days to present allegations. Both the Prosecutor’s Office and the victim’s defense will give their opinion on whether the footballer can get out of jail with charges. It will be the Court of Barcelona that will make a decision.
