The judge investigating the former Brazilian FC Barcelona player Dani Alves for allegedly raping a young woman at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona has agreed to keep him in prison, where he was admitted on January 20, after questioning his latest exculpatory version and concluding that he persists the risk of escape.

According to what legal sources have informed EFE this Tuesday, the head of the Investigating Court number 15 of Barcelona, ​​in accordance with the criteria of the Prosecutor’s Office and the private prosecution brought by the victim, have rejected the request of the footballer’s defense to leave on provisional release while the case is being investigated.

Alves, who remains in pretrial detention after his arrest in January, 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 Sutton nightclub in Barcelona the night of December 30.

In that appearance, the 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.

The magistrate, however, has questioned the report that the defense presented as expert evidence and that, in her opinion, is nothing more than documentary evidence by way of “reconstruction” of what happened: “His statements have nothing to do with with the facts.”

For the investigating judge, almost four months after Alves’s arrest, the evidence of criminality that involves him in the rape remains, so she sees no reason to change his personal situation.

In this sense, the magistrate contrasts the “persistence” of the victim’s statement with the different versions that the soccer player has given of what happened and recalls that the last one, in which he recognized vaginal penetration for the first time, offered it when he already had the results of the biological tests, which found traces of Alves’ semen in the young woman’s private parts.

Another issue that, in the judge’s opinion, has not changed since Alves entered prison is his risk of escape, which remains the same considering that the footballer has dual Spanish and Brazilian nationality, without any agreements. of extradition with their country of origin.

To this is added, adds the car, his imminent divorce: his wife, the model Joana Sanz, announced last month through social networks her intention to separate from him after eight years of marriage.

Alves’s defense, carried out by lawyers Cristóbal Martell and Arnau Xumetra, have up to five days to appeal the confirmation of the provisional detention of the former Barça player, before the examining magistrate or directly before the Barcelona Court.

Last February, the Court ruled out provisionally releasing the footballer, concluding that he presents a high risk of flight, given his “bulging economic capacity” and because the evidence that incriminates him is “severe” and “diverse”.