Former Barcelona and Football star player Dani Alves was found guilty of raping a 23-year-old woman in a Barcelona Nightclub on Thursday. He has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting the woman.
In Spain, a case of rape is investigated under the accusation of sexual assault and judgment could lead to imprisonment of the accused for four to fifteen years.
Is Alves to face 4 years in prison?
The 40-year-old denied the allegations of him assaulting the woman in the early hours of 31st December 2022 for which he was arrested. According to the Top court in Spanish’s Catalonia region while dictating his punishment on Thursday said that he should face a further probation of 5 years along with 4 and half years of prison. The prosecution has asked for a nine-year-old prison sentence.
The court denied the arguments put forward by Alves’s lawyers on being lenient with the punishments just because he was drunk. In addition to that his wife Joana Sanz, said that on the night of the rape, he looked very drunk when he got to their Barcelona home and even bumped into furniture before collapsing on the bed.
According to the Spanish Media, the court took into consideration Alves’s decision to compensate the victim €150,000 (£128,500)for the damage caused despite of the trial outcome.
As per the Prosecutor’s statement, the accused and his friends bought champagne for 3 young women before Alves lured one of them to the toilet seat of the VIP area of the club that she did not know of.
They argued that at this point he turned violent and forced her to have sex with him regardless of her repeated denials. However, Alves argued She could have left “if she wanted to”.
The Spanish Court issued a statement where they said that they had evidence other than that of the victim’s testimony that proved the Football player guilty. The evidence said that the accused had “abruptly grabbed the victim”, thrown her to the ground, and raped her while preventing her from moving as “the complainant said no and wanted to leave”.
Alves’s skeptical testimonies have proved to be one of the main reasons why he had been charged guilty. He has been in pre-trial detention since January 2023 and he has changed his testimony’s every time. He first denied the identity of the accuser then changed claiming that they met in the toilet and barely anything happened to a bold statement of “consensual sex” where he allegedly said, “We were both enjoying ourselves,”.
The incident left the victim in a state of agony and shock. One of her friends who was with her on the night described how she cried “uncontrollably” after leaving the bathroom.
The woman said the rape had caused her “anguish and terror”, and one of her friends who were with her on that night described how the 23-year-old had cried “uncontrollably” after leaving the bathroom.
Dani Alves has played almost 1000 competitive games for the club and the country with 43 titles. Alves has won six league titles and three Champions Leagues across two spells with the club. He also participated in Brazil’s 2022 World Cup.