Football Dani Alves sentenced
“She didn’t say she didn’t want to,” complains the Olympic champion
As of: 12:31 p.m. | Reading time: 4 minutes
“The accusation of rape is considered proven” – Dani Alves has to go to prison for a long time
Brazilian soccer star Dani Alves has to go to prison for a long time. The 40-year-old, a former professional from FC Barcelona and Paris St. Germain, among others, was found guilty by a Spanish court on Thursday of raping a woman.
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Dani Alves, one of the most successful soccer players in the world, is found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in Barcelona. The fact that he denies any wrongdoing in court doesn’t help. The 126-time Brazil international has been in prison for a long time.
Brazilian soccer star Dani Alves was found guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman in a Barcelona nightclub, a Spanish court ruled on Thursday. The three-judge panel sentenced Alves to four years and six months in prison. He also has to pay 150,000 euros in compensation. Alves, 40, had denied any wrongdoing during the three-day trial this month. However, he admitted to three judges and the numerous journalists who attended that he had been drunk that night. The verdict can be appealed.
The court found that Alves abused his victim in a toilet at the upscale Sutton nightclub in Barcelona in the early hours of December 31, 2022. The public prosecutor’s office had demanded a nine-year prison sentence for Alves, while his accuser’s lawyers asked for 12 years. His defense demanded an acquittal or, if found guilty, a one-year prison sentence plus 50,000 euros in compensation for the victim.
Alves at the 2022 World Cup
Quelle: picture alliance/dpa/Tom Weller
The court found it proven that “the defendant abruptly grabbed the complainant, threw her to the ground, held her and penetrated her vaginally, even though she had said no and wanted to leave,” the court said in a statement.
Shortly after the complaint, Alves said that he had been at the disco that evening. “But I reject that. I had fun, but without getting close to others, and I was always considerate of those around me,” he told the TV station Antena 3. He doesn’t even know the woman who is accusing him.
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During the investigation, Alves initially denied any sexual contact with the woman, according to a statement from the Catalan judiciary. The footballer explained in court that he lied at the beginning to “save his marriage”. “I thought my wife wouldn’t forgive me.”
“We both enjoyed it,” says Alves
The woman accusing Alves was questioned at the start of the trial in camera to protect her identity. More than two dozen witnesses and experts were heard in the criminal proceedings. Two of the young woman’s companions as well as police officers, doctors and nightclub employees said that the young woman was “in shock” after the incident. At the end of the third and final day of the trial, Alves denied the allegations. “She didn’t tell me she didn’t want to,” he explained through tears: “We both enjoyed it.”
The victim, however, told prosecutors that she danced with Alves and willingly went into the nightclub’s bathroom, but when she wanted to leave later, he wouldn’t let her. She said he slapped her, insulted her and forced her to perform sexual acts against her will.
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Alves has been in prison since his arrest on January 20, 2023. His bail applications were rejected because the court deemed him a flight risk. Brazil does not extradite its own citizens if they are convicted in other countries.
Alves was under contract with FC Barcelona until 2022 and most recently plays for UNAM Pumas. The Mexican club terminated the contract in January last year because of the incident. In 2021, Alves captained the Brazilian Olympic team to the gold medal at the Summer Games in Tokyo. He also took part again at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and, at the age of 39 years and 210 days, became the oldest World Cup player in the history of the Brazilian national team, for which he appeared 126 times.
He is one of the most successful footballers in the world, having won the Champions League three times with Barcelona and the UEFA Cup twice with Sevilla FC. He became Spanish champion six times with Barcelona, Italian champion once with Juventus Turin and French champion twice with Paris St. Germain.
