Dani Alves' defense team appeals imprisonment with bail request

Footballer Dani Alves' defense team presented an appeal on Monday against his imprisonment over an alleged sexual assault in a Barcelona nightclub on December 30. 

The request for bail argues that the former FC Barcelona player does not present a flight risk and puts forward several alternative proposals. Lawyers say their client could provide a bail bond, submit his passport, report to the court regularly, or wear an electronic tracking wristband – although GPS tags are not normally used for people on pre-trial release. 

The document provided to the court runs to 20 pages and is accompanied by more than 100 pages of supplementary documentation that aims to prove Alves' roots in Barcelona. 

As the Brazil international owns a house in Esplugues de Llobregat, just outside Barcelona, and has been sacked by his former club UNAM in Mexico, the risk of Alves fleeing the country has decreased, the defense argues. 

Alleged sexual assault

Despite initially saying he didn't know the alleged victim, Alves now maintains he did have consensual sex with the woman in a private bathroom at the Sutton Barcelona club. He claims that he initially lied in order to avoid admitting marital infidelity. 

The woman's version of events is corroborated by several pieces of evidence, such as her fingerprints present at a certain place in the bathroom, the presence of semen on her clothes, a consistent account of what happened, statements from several witnesses, images from video cameras, and the medical report given to her at Hospital Clínic shortly after the alleged assault. 

Barcelona's local court number 15 sent the former Barça full-back to prison without bail on January 20. 

He was transferred from Brians 1 prison to Brians 2 on January 23, where wards house around 80 inmates on average.