Barcelona (EFE) 23-year-old in the toilets of the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona.
The hearing will take place from 11:00 a.m. in the third section of the Barcelona Court, behind closed doors and without the presence of the former soccer player, since only the defense lawyers are expected to participate, to demand their freedom, and the private prosecution and the Prosecutor’s Office, who ask that he continue in preventive detention.
Alves’ defense filed an appeal in May before the Barcelona Court against the decision of the head of the 15th investigating court in the Catalan capital to keep the former Brazilian international in preventive detention, after being imprisoned in the Brians 2 prison on 20 January for the rape, which occurred on the night of December 30.
The risk of flight persisted, according to the judge
In her resolution last May, the judge agreed to keep Alves in prison, in accordance with the criteria of the Prosecutor’s Office and the private prosecution, by questioning his latest exculpatory version and concluding that the risk of escape persisted.
Alves had again asked the judge to release him on April 20, after appearing before the magistrate, at his own request, to give his fourth version of what happened at the Sutto nightclub in Barcelona on the night of December 30.
In that appearance, the former Brazilian player admitted for the first time that he had had vaginal sex with the complainant and insisted that they were consented to, which he tried to prove by providing an analysis of the images recorded by Sutton’s security cameras and that According to his version, they exculpate him.
However, the magistrate questioned the report that the defense presented as an expert and that, in her opinion, is nothing more than documentary evidence from a party as a “reconstruction” of what happened, given that “it is not even in charge of the court or carried out by the scientific police”.
Faced with the athlete’s argument that the victim could have felt annoyed with him for not having been “affectionate” after the relationship -and that is why he denounced him-, the judge replied that it is “curious” that both did not speak to each other or ” almost” the look after leaving the bathroom, “if everything went as well as Alves points out”.
Last statement of the ex-footballer
For the investigating judge, after the ex-soccer player’s last statement, the indications of criminality that involved him in the rape remained, for which reason she did not appreciate reasons to change his personal situation and agreed that he continue in prison.
Faced with this situation, Alves’ lawyers, Cristóbal Martell and Arnau Xumetra, appealed to the Barcelona Court asking for the provisional release of the former soccer player, arguing that it is “unthinkable” that he try to flee, given that he has a “life project” in Barcelona and has already sent their children to school in a center in the Catalan capital.
For the lawyers, “the escape adventure” of the ex-soccer player is unthinkable because the escape would mean “an unbearable burden for the subject and an unnecessary disrespect for himself and for the family and children” that Alves “does not want to provoke.”
In this way, Alves’ defense maintains that the risk of flight is “non-existent”.
Alves’ appeal questions the victim’s version
In addition to denying the risk of flight, the bulk of Alves’ appeal focuses on questioning the victim’s version in light of the images captured by the nightclub’s security cameras in the moments before the former soccer player and the complainant entered. in the bathroom where the rape allegedly occurred.
The defense, which provided the court with a report that analyzed the images, claims that this document is of “unquestionable” utility.