The Brazilian footballer Dani Alves was sentenced this Thursday to four years and six months in prison by a court in Barcelona, finding him guilty of raping a woman in the toilet of a nightclub in the same city at the end of 2022.
“It has been proven that the victim did not consent and, in addition to the complainant’s statement, there are also indications that the rape can be viewed as proven,” the court said in a statement two weeks after the end of the trial.
The judges imposed an additional five years of supervised release, a restraining order on the victim for nine and a half years and the payment of compensation of 150,000 euros (about $160,000).
Photo: AFP
Dani Alves’ defense had requested an acquittal for the athlete
The prosecution, which had attested to the applicant’s credibility since the beginning of the investigation, requested a nine-year prison sentence for him, while his defense sought an acquittal.
The former Barça player’s lawyer announced that she would appeal the verdict.
The 40-year-old player received the notification along with his lawyer, who assured that the athlete was “fine” after learning of the verdict.
Dani Alves has been accused of raping a young woman in the toilet of the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona on the night of December 30, 2022.
Photo: AFP
This was the trial of Dani Alves
In the trial, which took place between February 5th and 7th, the public prosecutor requested nine years in prison for Alves and the private prosecution requested twelve years; However, the court ultimately set the sentence at four and a half years, applying the mitigating factor of reparation of harm and the penal code in force at the time of the rape of the victim, which is the original “yes only means yes” law passed by former minister Irene Montero.
The court, rejecting the mitigating circumstance of drunkenness cited by the defense, concluded that Dani Alves “abruptly” grabbed the victim “with the greatest force”, threw her to the ground and raped her in order to prevent her from committing herself move .**, “despite the fact that the complainant said no, she wanted to go.”
When the victim found herself in a small bathroom with no way out, she “felt shocked and unable to react and felt out of breath at the situation of fear and horror at what she was experiencing,” the court said.
In addition, they emphasize that the fact that Alves left the nightclub without saying goodbye to the victim or showing any interest in her, despite passing a short distance away, shows that the footballer was aware that “he was against the “acted according to the will of the victim”. .” and I was interested in leaving the premises as quickly as possible.
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