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(CNN) — Former Barcelona and Brazil soccer player Dani Alves has won his appeal against a rape conviction, with a Spanish court overturning the ruling on Friday.
Alves was found guilty in February 2024 of sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub bathroom and sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.
Alves has always insisted that the sexual relations were consensual.
“Dani Alves is very happy. He is innocent, that is demonstrated. Justice has spoken,” Inés Guardiola, lawyer for the former Barça, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus player, told RAC1 radio.
The appeals division of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia said in Friday’s ruling that it “unanimously reverses the sentence that convicted a soccer player for sexual assault.”
The court document went on to say there was “insufficient evidence” to deny Alves his “presumption of innocence.”
The court judgment said the complainant’s testimony “does not correspond to reality” when compared to events recorded on video.
However, the court did note that its ruling did not mean it judges the events put forward by Alves’ defense as the “true hypothesis” of what occurred that night.
The ruling can still be appealed to Spain’s Supreme Court in Madrid.
Alves, 41, was arrested in January 2023 following the events at the Barcelona nightclub in late December 2022 and was held in prison pre-trial until his sentencing in February 2024.
Alves, who was also ordered to pay $162,700 (150,000 euros) to the woman in damages in the decision last year, was released on bail in March 2024 after paying $1.2 million (1.1 million euros) while he awaited the judgment in the appeal hearing, according to the Associated Press.
Alves is one of the most decorated soccer players of his generation, having won domestic titles in Spain, Italy and France. He also won three Champions League titles with the Blaugrana and two Copa Américas and an Olympic gold medal for Brazil.
The-CNN-Wire
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