According to Spanish law, Brazilian defender Dani Alves may be eligible for release from prison for a certain period starting July 20, 2024, upon serving one-third of the sentence.
On the morning of February 22, Alves was sentenced by a Barcelona court to 4 years and 6 months for the crime of raping a 23-year-old woman at a nightclub in Barcelona at the end of 2022. Additionally, the former Barcelona and PSG defender has been placed under legal supervision for an additional 5 years and has been issued a restraining order from contacting the victim for 9 years and 6 months.
However, despite being sentenced to 54 months, Alves may be granted temporary freedom within the next five months, starting July 20, upon completion of one-third of the sentence. Under Spanish law, the 40-year-old defender will be allowed to leave prison to work or “participate in activities” during the day before returning at night. The nature of these activities is currently unclear. Nonetheless, this temporary release must be approved by the prison monitoring unit and is contingent upon Alves’ good behavior – consistently engaging in cultural or vocational activities within the prison and having already paid the €150,000 compensation to the complainant as per the verdict on February 22.
However, according to AS, this possibility is unlikely due to the risk of flight. Brazil does not extradite its citizens when they are convicted in another country. This is also why Alves has consistently been denied bail requests while awaiting trial.
Alves was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at a nightclub in Barcelona on December 30, 2022. He was arrested at the Mossos d’Esquadra de Les Corts station in Barcelona on January 20, 2023, spending three days in custody at Brians 1 prison before being transferred to Brians 2 – where most inmates are sex offenders. This means that Alves has been detained pending trial and the 13 months he has spent in prison so far have been credited towards his sentence. By April 2025, the former Barcelona and PSG defender may be allowed to sleep at home and have weekend leaves from prison depending on his good behavior. By this stage, Alves will have served over half of his sentence.
Furthermore, Alves may not have to serve his prison sentence if lawyer Ines Guardiola disagrees with the verdict, asserting her belief in his innocence and intending to appeal.
“Four and a half years are much better than the 9 and 12 years proposed by the prosecution and the injured party, but we will appeal because I still believe in Alves’ innocence,” Guardiola told reporters after the verdict. “We haven’t read the entire verdict because it’s very lengthy, but we will study it in detail. We defend his innocence.”