The San Francisco 49ers announced today that star linebacker Aldon Smith has been activated and is eligible to play, two days after he posted bail on three felony illegal weapons charges in San Jose.
The team reported in an email this afternoon that Smith was activated from its non-football injury list.
Smith had missed the previous five games since a DUI arrest in San Jose on Sept. 20.
The 49ers’ next game is Sunday versus the Carolina Panthers at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
Smith faces criminal charges in two cases filed by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, one alleging he possessed illegal assault weapons and another from his misdemeanor DUI arrest.
He surrendered to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday after finishing a stay at a rehabilitation facility for alcohol abuse and was released after posting $75,000 bail on the gun charges, according to the district attorney’s office.
Smith will be arraigned on the felony allegations on Nov. 12 at the Hall of Justice in San Jose and on lesser charges in the DUI case on Nov. 19, the district attorney’s office reported.
The weapons charges were filed on Oct. 9 in connection with three rifles found by sheriff’s deputies in 2012 in his home in unincorporated San Jose later deemed assault weapons that are illegal in California, prosecutors said.
The DUI case comes from his Sept. 20 arrest after crashing his car into a tree outside a home in San Jose.
He faces misdemeanor allegations of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood-alcohol level of above .15, according to prosecutors.
Jeff Burbank, Bay City News
