High Court refuses to re-examine survivor of Dani Alves' sexual assault as requested by defense

The Catalan High Court (TSJC) has rejected a request from Dani Alves' defence team to re-examine the survivor of his sexual assault, for which the former football was convicted in December 2022.

The court has not accepted the two main pieces of evidence requested by Alves' defense to review the sentence imposed on the former Barça player.

Alves was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for sexually assaulting a woman at the Sutton nightclub in the Catalan capital. Despite being sentenced to 4.5 years, Alves was released in March 2024 after posting €1 million in bail.

The complainant's lawyer and the prosecutor in the case also filed an appeal demanding that the Brazilian remain in detention until the sentence is final because there is still a flight risk.

The Barcelona court allowed Alves' provisional release because the sentence imposed was lower than those requested by the complainant and the prosecutor.

Alves' lawyer, Inés Guardiola, filed an appeal against his conviction and asked the High Court for a new examination of the victim to assess the psychological consequences she may have suffered. Guardiola explained that in medical examination, the defense doctor was not allowed to ask more than a single question to the complainant.

The court admitted that the defense psychologist should have been allowed to intervene "on an equal footing." However, it discards bringing a new expert report into consideration because, in its opinion, "there is no decisive contribution" to issue its resolution, and to do so would be to "re-victimize her."

The defence lawyer also requested that the Catalan police re-examine the fingerprints of the player and the victim in the toilet where the events took place, because, according to their version, they did not correspond with the version given by the victim. 

Lastly, she also requested that all 900 news items about the case between the events that occurred and the trial more than a year later be attached to the case.

The court has allowed only this last request.