Professional soccer player Dani Alves has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison in Spain for sexual aggression. The court also announced on Thursday that the Brazilian would have to pay the victim 150,000 euros. The 40-year-old had been in custody for a good year before the verdict after a young woman accused him of forcing her to have sex in a toilet in a nightclub in the Catalan metropolis on the night of December 31, 2022.
An appeal could still be lodged against the verdict. 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.
Alves lied to save marriage
The former Barça professional rejected the allegations in the trial two weeks ago. The sexual acts were carried out with the young woman’s consent. “She didn’t tell me she didn’t want to,” Alves insisted at the time. “We both enjoyed it.” But he admitted to three judges and the large number of journalists that he had been drunk that night.
During the investigation, Alves initially denied any sexual contact with the then 23-year-old woman, as the Catalan justice system announced. He then explained in court that he had lied at the beginning to “save his marriage”. “I thought that my wife wouldn’t forgive me.” The public prosecutor had demanded nine years in prison and also 150,000 euros in damages. The plaintiff’s lawyers wanted to send the footballer behind bars for twelve years.
Published/Updated: Recommendations: 6 Hans-Günter Kellner, Madrid Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 20 Published/Updated: Recommendations: 1
The woman who accused Alves was questioned behind closed doors at the start of the trial. More than two dozen witnesses and experts were also heard during the three-day criminal trial. 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.
The 126-time Seleção international, who also played in Europe for FC Sevilla, Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus Turin, was only arrested three weeks after the incident – on January 20 last year – during a visit to Catalonia . Before his arrest, he had played for the UNAM Pumas club in Mexico.
