The sentence that sentenced former Brazilian player Daniel Alves to four and a half years in prison for sexual assault was annulled on Friday (28) by the Catalonia Superior Court of Justice. In judging a defense appeal, the Court considered that “from existing evidence it cannot be concluded that the standards of the presumption of innocence have been overcome.” The Supreme Court of Spain, the last instance, equivalent to the Brazilian Supreme Court.
Daniel Alves was accused of sexual assault by a 23 -year -old woman who preferred to stay in anonymity. They met at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona on December 31, 2022. Daniel Alves was arrested preventively on January 20, 2023 and sentenced about a year later. In March 2024, he obtained the right to await the verdict of the last instance in freedom upon payment of 1 million euros (R $ 6.2 million in today’s amounts). With the obligation to present itself to justice periodically and unable to leave Spanish territory.
“It seems to me to remote the hypothesis that the Supreme Court changes the decision of the Superior Court,” he told the Sheet Spanish Ignácio González Vega, Judge of the Provincial Hearing of Barcelona. “The sentence is well grounded from the legal point of view.”
According to González Vega, Daniel Alves will receive back the full amount of the bail, is free to leave the country and can, if he wants to sue the Spanish state for the time he was deprived of liberty.
“We are very happy, it was done justice and was shown that Alves is innocent,” said the lawyer of the former player, Ines Guardiola, in an interview with a Catalan radio.
The revocation of the penalty caused controversy in the political media of Spain. “I have not read the sentence yet, but I express my solidarity with all victims of abuse or physical bad tracts that sometimes have difficulty denouncing,” said vice-minister, Maria Jesús Monteiro.
“The sentence of the Superior Court does not seek to clarify whether or not there has been consent in sexual intercourse. It blames the victim and disbelieves it. This is the patriarchal justice and the culture of violation,” wrote Irene Montero, deputy of the European Parliament and former Minister of Equality of Spain, on the social network X (former Twitter).
Montero refers to the fact that the annulment of the sentence was mainly based on contradictions between the testimony of the alleged victim and the images of the Sutton nightclub security cameras. According to the sentence, the complainant does not seem to have been coerced by Daniel Alves and his friends to go to the bathroom where the alleged sexual aggression took place, as he said in his statement. “The divergence between what was reported and what is seen in the cameras (…) affects the credibility of the whole statement,” according to the sentence – he stresses, however, that inconsistencies in the complainant’s testimony do not mean that the defense version is correct.
The text also questions the tests collected in the bathroom where the violation was allegedly, like fingerprints. According to the sentence, they are not enough to conclude that there was sexual aggression. The process has three main sets of evidence: security cameras, evidence collected in the bathroom and the testimony of the alleged victim. The Higher Court puts the first two in doubt and concludes: “The conviction refered only on the complainant’s testimony, which places another element of uncertainty, highlighting the scarce and insufficient force of the accusatory hypothesis.”
According to Judge González Vega, Spanish jurisprudence often requires evidence that corroborates the complainant’s testimony in cases of sexual aggression. “This corroboration can come in many ways. One can reconstruct a history of harassment before or after the crime, through the testimony of other witnesses,” says González Vega. “Sometimes a WhatsApp message before or after aggression serves as a definitive proof.”
The accusation against Daniel Alves in the original process used the fact that the former player has changed his version several times. In his first statements, unaware that he had been recorded by security cameras, Alves denied knowing the alleged victim. In the end admitted to having sex with her, but with consent. Wouldn’t it be unfair to point out inconsistencies in the complainant’s testimony and ignore the former player’s own false statements during the process?
“I think there was inability to both the defense and the accusation,” says González Vega. “The defense should have guided the client to maintain a single version of the incident. The accusation could be careful that there was no contradiction between the testimony and security cameras. The fundamental – that in Spain, as in Portugal or Brazil, the proof is that the accused is not required to make statements in court that compromises it, while telling the truth is essential for the credibility of the complainant.”
In revoking the conviction, the High Court of Catalonia overturned two appeals claiming the increase in Daniel Alves. The prosecution asked for 12 years, and the Spanish prosecutor, nine years old. If there is a new appeal to the Supreme Court Supreme, and Daniel Alves is convicted again, the former player must return to Spain and present himself to court to serve what is left of the sentence. If you are in Brazil and refuse, the Spanish government can make an extradition request.
