- Barcelona star Dani Alves has been cleared of raping a woman in a nightclub
- The footballer was handed the sentence back in February of last year
- Former full-back was acquitted during the week following an appeal
Dani Alves‘ wife Joana Sanz has taken to social media to issue a response to the news that the former Barcelona star has been sensationally cleared of raping a woman at a Catalan nightclub after appealing his four-year jail term.
The footballer was handed the sentence in February last year after three judges convicted him of the sex attack following a three-day trial.
Public prosecutors appealed and called for him to be jailed for nine years while private prosecutors acting on behalf of the complainant demanded he be jailed for 12 years after they also contested the original conviction and prison sentence.
On Friday the Catalan High Court rejected the appeals – and acquitted Alves of the crime he was convicted of last year.
The Catalan High Court ruling was announced in a 101-page written document which stated: ‘it cannot be concluded that the limits of the presumption of innocence have been surpassed.’
Alves – has been on bail since March last year – said through his lawyer Ines Guardiola today in his first reaction to the news of his rape acquittal that he was ‘very happy.’
Dani Alves’ ex-wife has taken to social media following the news that he was cleared of rape
Sanz posted a long message alongside a selfie as she hit back at those who had criticised her
Throughout his trial, he faced an acrimonious split from his wife, 32-year-old model Sanz. However, it was never confirmed that they had undergone a divorce.
After initially supporting her then husband, their relationship quickly deteriorated, ended with the runway model posting a triumphant selfie in the moments after he was sentenced to four-and-a-half years behind bars.
However, they appeared to reconcile following his bail and she has now posted a long message on her Instagram story in response to Saturday’s news.
‘They pointed fingers at me, insulted me, threatened me, and persecuted me for two years. As if I were the one in the dock ,’ she wrote alongside a selfie.
‘Despite so much media and public damage, I am still standing, without missing a job as so many would have wished to happen, faithful to my beliefs and defending what I think without being poisoned by others.
‘I invite you to stop venting your hatred on people you don’t know at all , to document and educate yourselves, so that you don’t have to bite your tongue that sometimes poisons.’
After Friday’s verdict, Ines Guardiola added ‘justice has finally been done.’
Telling Catalan radio station RAC-1 she was always confident he would be cleared, she added: ‘Of course this was what we were expecting.
‘Dani Alves is innocent and this has been shown. We are very happy and very excited.’
Catalan High Court rejected the appeals and acquitted Alves of the crime he was convicted of
Prosecutors have a final appeal they can lodge – to Spain’s Supreme Court. It is not immediately clear this morning if they will try to overturn it but they are expected to do so.
Alves protested his innocence on February 7 last year after taking the stand on the last day of his three-day trial, saying the sex he had with his 23-year-old female accuser was consensual and insisting he would never hurt anyone.
The woman he was found guilty of raping insisted he had forced himself on her after hitting her when she gave her evidence in court behind a screen.
The appeal judges ruled Dani Alves’ accuser was an ‘unreliable complainant’ as shown by video evidence and the fact she denied a sexual act had taken place which had been corroborated ‘with very high probability’ by DNA tests.
They added: ‘It cannot be concluded that the standards required by the presumption of innocence have been met.
‘The trial court’s ruling uses the term credibility as a synonym for reliability in its analysis, and it is not.
‘Credibility corresponds to a subjective belief, which cannot be verified, associated with the person giving the statement. Reliability, on the other hand, pertains to the statement itself.’
