Dani Alves to be FREED just four weeks after 4.5 year rape sentence as he pays 1 million euro bail

BRAZILIAN footballer Dani Alves is set to walk out of prison in the coming hours for the first time in more than a year despite being convicted of rape less than a month ago.

The 40-year-old has won his fight to appeal his four-and-a-half year jail sentence from the comfort of his own home rather than a jail cell.

Dani Alves was jailed on a rape convictionCredit: PA

The disgraced footballer will not be allowed to leave SpainCredit: AFP

A Barcelona court ruled today that Alves could be released after posting bail of one million euros (£850,000) and serving just a quarter of his four and a half-year sentence for rape.

The decision can still be appealed.

The conditions for Alves' release include relinquishing both his Brazilian and Spanish passports so he cannot leave Spain as well as an obligation to appear before the court on a weekly basis.

The court also imposed a restraining order, barring Alves from approaching the victim.

Public prosecutors had opposed his request, arguing he posed a high-flight risk.

Alves, one of the world's most decorated footballers who played for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain, was sentenced on February 22 after being convicted of raping a young woman at a Barcelona nightclub on December 30, 2022.

His lawyers swiftly appealed the conviction.

Alves said via video link in a behind-closed-doors court hearing yesterday morning: “I am not going to flee, I believe in justice."

A public prosecutor and a lawyer acting for the woman the footballer was found guilty of raping argued he should be kept in prison.

Sources close to Alves were saying today they were confident the bail bond the footballer has to hand over could be raised today.

It was not immediately clear where Alves could spend his first night of freedom since January 20 of last year when he was arrested.

His properties include a mansion in Esplugues de LLobregat a 25-minute drive west of Barcelona’s city centre, built in 2010 when he was still married to his ex-wife Dinorah Santana before he met and married Tenerife-born model Joana Sanz.

Sanz revealed last year she had demanded a divorce after Alves admitted for the first time to having sex with the woman he was found guilty of raping, but claimed as he still does that the relations were consensual.

The 31-year-old brunette later said the divorce had been put on hold and she gave evidence on Alves’ behalf at his trial from February 5 to 7.

The footballer made several attempts before his conviction to get bail, but they were turned down partly on the basis he was a flight risk.

One of the main arguments put forward by prosecutors opposing his pre-trial bail requests was that he could flee Spain and make it to Brazil and the South American country does not extradite its citizens sentenced abroad.

The jail sentence he received, considered lenient by some critics, was far less than the nine years public prosecutors demanded and the 12 years Alves’ female accuser wanted if he was convicted.

Part of his lawyer’s arguments at today’s hearing at Barcelona’s Audiencia Provincial Court involved downplaying the idea he was now a flight risk.

She said that if it wasn’t for the appeal he has lodged he could already be enjoying prison benefits including day releases as he has served a quarter of his sentence with his time he has already spent on remand taken into account.

The public prosecutor and the prosecutor acting for his victim are also appealing the sentence but they want him to receive a stiffer punishment.

Alves protested his innocence on February 7 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.

Alves' lawyers had argued the victim had been "glued" to the player while dancing at the nightclub, saying there was "sexual tension" between them.

In the court's 61-page decision, it said that did not mean "that she consented to anything that might have subsequently happened".

Alves, who became the oldest player to represent Brazil at the World Cup in December 2022 in Qatar, was ordered to stand trial last November.

Initially it was reported he had been accused of putting his hands down a woman’s underwear before it emerged his victim was saying she had been raped.

He was sacked by Mexican side UNAM Pumas following his arrest in Barcelona at the start of last year after he flew back to the Catalan capital to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral.

Judges said when his previous bail requests were turned down that his victim’s version of events was coherent and pointed out Alves had changed his story several times as the evidence authorities had built up against him emerged.

Alves claimed before his arrest he had never met his female accuser but ended up backtracking after being held.

In an exclusive interview from his prison last June with a Spanish TV reporter, he claimed: “The only person I have to ask for forgiveness is my wife.”

Joana Sanz gave evidence on his behalf and said he arrived home “very drunk”. His alcohol consumption that night was not taken into account as a mitigating factor.

Alves said in a letter, published and later removed by Joana, “I pray every day that the day comes when I can see you wake up.”

As well as two spells at Barcelona, Alves has played for Seville, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and Sao Paulo.

He is widely considered as one of the greatest full-backs of all time.

At the start of the year ahead of his conviction, his mum Lucia Alves caused controversy and left herself open to future prosecution by naming and picturing her son’s victim in a social media post she later removed.

She attended his trial along with Alves’ brothers.

Spain’s second deputy PM Yolanda Diaz said after he was convicted: “I hope this prison sentence serves as an exemplary measure for all the sexist behaviour women suffer in all areas.”

Earlier this month Dani Alves’ brother Ney blasted an Internet prankster whose fake claims the footballer had killed himself in prison went viral.

Today, Catalonia's High Court of Justice said in a statement: “The 21st section of the Barcelona Audiencia Provincial Court has agreed by a majority and with one dissenting vote to agree to the conditional release of Daniel Alves da Silva, with the payment of a bail bond of one million euros.