Dani Alves was sentenced on Thursday February 22, 2024 to four and a half years in prison by the Barcelona court. The Brazilian player was summoned to court on February 22 to hear the verdict of his trial, held from February 5 to 7.
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Brazilian footballer Dani Alves was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for raping a woman in the toilets of a Barcelona nightclub. The court, which declared in a press release to consider rape as “ proven », imposed an additional 5 years of supervised release, a restraining order against the victim for 9 and a half years and the payment of compensation of 150,000 euros.
The former Brazilian international, against whom the prosecution had requested nine years in prison, had claimed during his trial to have had a consensual sexual relationship and had refuted any form of violence against the complainant during his final testimony.
A version which did not convince the prosecutor, who concluded her indictment by considering that the complainant, who had testified in camera, had presented a “ absolutely credible story » since the beginning of the investigation, and that Dani Alves had demonstrated “ violence » towards the young woman. Handcuffed, dressed in a white sweater and wearing glasses, the 40-year-old ex-player defended himself by asserting that the complainant had “not At no moment (…) say anything » to leave. “ If she wanted to leave, she could leave at any time, she didn’t have to be there », added the former right-back, assuring that he was “not not a violent man “.
In pre-trial detention for a little over a year, Dani Alves has contested the facts since the start of the case, but his defense has been weakened by his numerous changes of version. After claiming in a video at the beginning of January 2023 that he had never met the complainant, he justified his lie by explaining that he wanted to protect his marriage, before ending up admitting a sexual relationship with the complainant, according to him, consensual.
One of the most successful footballers in history, Dani Alves enjoyed the most glorious period of his career at Barça, between 2008 and 2016, where he won 23 trophies. The player, who also played in Seville (Spain), Juventus Turin (Italy) and Paris Saint-Germaie, was playing for the Mexican club Pumas at the time of his incarceration. This club, with which he was under contract until the end of last season, then immediately dismissed him.