Dani Alves’ rape trial begins this Monday | Relief

The Brazilian footballer spent more than 12 months in a temporary prison. Dani Alves will appear in court from Monday in Barcelona is accused of allegedly raping a woman in a nightclub in the city, for which The prosecutor’s office is asking for nine years in prison for him.

The trial, which is expected to last until Wednesday, will begin at 10:00 a.m. in Barcelona provincial court, where Alves, 40, will arrive from prison, where he has been held since the end of January 2023.

A former Barça or PSG footballer, who claims the relationship was consensual, is accused by a young woman of raping her in an exclusive area toilet Nightclub Sutton from Barcelona early in the morning from 30 to 31 December 2022.

According to prosecutors, the facts are consistent with the alleged crime of “sexual assault by penetration,” for which Alves is asking for nine years in prison in addition to the prison sentence. compensation 150,000 euros

(about $162,000) for the woman and another ten years of supervised release after serving her sentence.

The trial, which attracted a lot of media attention, journalists can finally follow themafter magistrates rejected a prosecutor’s request to hold the hearing behind closed doors. To protect her identity, the woman’s testimony will be completely confidential and she will also be guaranteed “no visual confrontation with the accused.”

According to the prosecutor’s indictment, the events took place in the reserved area of ​​this fashionable Barcelona nightclub, where Alves, who was familiar with the place and was there with a friend, was supposed to coincide with a woman who was going together, accompanied by a cousin and a friend.

After inviting them over for champagne, the former Brazil defender would invite the girl to go to another exclusive area, where there was a small toilet that she was unaware of. There, according to the prosecutor’s office, Alves would demonstrate “cruel attitude” to the woman he attacked and forced into sexual relationsdespite his resistance.

“The victim repeatedly asked him to let her go, that she wanted to leave there, but the defendant did not allow this,” the document states, which states that she experienced “a situation of anguish and horror.”

The young woman who reported the events of January 2 after receiving medical attention that night is now suffering from “global high-intensity post-traumatic stress disorder” for which he is undergoing treatment, the prosecutor’s office says.

Alves version changes

Alves, who initially denied knowing the girl, changed his story several times during that time but eventually admitted they were in a relationship, albeit consensual, according to sources close to the matter.

The woman’s version remained unchanged, and the Barcelona court rejected various appeals by the athlete’s lawyers asking for his temporary release, arguing, among other things, that there was a risk of flight.

Since the beginning of the case, rumors and leaks have been repeated, and the woman’s lawyer, Esther Garcia, announced in January that will condemn the publication of a video with images of a young woman on the account of Alves’ mother on a social network.

At the end of November, the lawyer also denied that she had reached an agreement with the defense, although she admitted that, at the request of the player’s lawyers, there were “conversations” during which “the inability to achieve any understanding.”

In Spain, an agreement is possible between the accused, the victim and the prosecutor’s office – which in this case could entail a hypothetical admission of guilt on the part of Alves and compensation to the victim, in exchange for a partial mitigation of the sentence – remains open until the start of the trial.

Member of Messi and Guardiola’s successful Barça team and one of the most successful football players in history at the time of the events. Alves was on holiday in Barcelona before returning to the Mexican Pumas team after playing at the World Cup in Qatar with his team losing in the quarter-finals. A few hours after he was jailed, the Mexican organization announced its withdrawal from the team.