Dani Alves was sentenced in Spain to four and a half years in prison

The court found him guilty of raping a woman in a bathroom at a nightclub in Barcelona.
by
Desmond Efe-Khaese
2024-02-22 13:38:36

Dani Alves was sentenced to four and a half years in prison after being found guilty by the Spanish courts of having raped a woman. The court also ordered five additional years of supervised release (or conditional release), a restraining order for the victim for 9 and a half years and the payment of compensation of 150,000 euros.

The judges considered in their ruling that “it was proven that the victim did not consent and that there is evidence, in addition to the testimony of the complainant, to prove the rape.” Although the woman’s statement about what happened on December 30, 2022 in a bathroom at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona was accepted as valid, the sentence awarded is far from the 12 years she requested and the nine years requested by the Prosecutor’s Office.

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The former FC Bacelona full-back, 40, can appeal the sentence against him. During the trial, which took place on February 5 and 6, he denied the sexual assault, said that there was consent, denied having been violent and indicated that he drank a lot of alcohol that night, in an attempt to appease the sentence.

The judicial resolution rejected his version and explained that “for the existence of sexual assault it is not necessary that physical injuries occur, nor that there be evidence of heroic opposition by the victim to having sexual relations.”

As during that trial, Alves was taken today to the Barcelona Court to hear the sentence in a police vehicle from the Spanish prison where he has been housed for 13 months. The magistrates denied him the various requests for release throughout the process, ruling that there was a risk of flight.

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