Football professional Dani Alves has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison in Spain for sexual aggression.
The court also announced on Thursday (February 22, 2024) that the Brazilian would have to pay the victim 150,000 euros.
“The victim did not consent and there is evidence that goes beyond the complainant’s statement and allows the rape to be considered proven” the court wrote in a press release.
Already in Pretrial detention
The 40-year-old had been in custody for over a year before the verdict after a young woman accused him of forcing her to have sex in a toilet at a nightclub in Barcelona 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” said the court’s statement.
Alves initially rejects allegations
The ex-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 asserted at the time. However, he admitted to three judges and the numerous journalists who attended 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.”
The public prosecutor’s office had demanded nine years in prison and also 150,000 euros in damages. The plaintiff’s lawyers wanted to send the footballer to prison for twelve years.
Arrested after visiting Catalonia
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 after the incident the young woman “in shock“confessed.
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.