Catalonia’s top court on Thursday found former Brazil footballer Dani Alves guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022, sentencing him to four and a half years in prison.
The court also ordered that Alves pay 150,000 euros ($162,990) to the victim.
“The sentence considers that it has been proven that the victim did not consent, and that there is evidence, in addition to the testimony of the plaintiff, to consider the rape proven,” the court said in a statement.
Alves, aged 40, denied any wrongdoing during a trial that took place over three days this month.
The decision can be appealed.
The 40-year-old former Barcelona defender was arrested in January last year and has been held on remand since.
Prosecutors had called for a nine-year jail sentence for the three-time Champions League winner followed by 10 years of probation.
One of the world’s most decorated footballers who played for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain during a storied career, Alves, 40, went on trial earlier this month on charges of raping a woman at the Sutton nightclub in the early hours of December 31, 2022.
His accuser — who testified behind a screen to protect her identity — said Alves had violently forced her to have sex in a private bathroom of the nightclub despite her begging him to let her go, causing her “anguish and terror”, according to prosecutors.
A friend who was with her broke down in tears as she told the court how the victim was “crying uncontrollably” after leaving the bathroom, saying Alves had “really hurt” her.
Police officers who attended the woman told the court about the victim’s state of agitation and “shock” when they arrived at the nightclub, as well as her anxiety that “nobody would believe her” if she filed a complaint.
Alves, who was present in court throughout his three-day trial, testified that his sexual encounter with the woman was consensual and denied hitting her and grabbing her hair.
“I am not that type of man, I am not a violent,” he told the court after his defence lawyer asked if he had forced her to have sex.
“If she wanted to leave, she could have left, she was not obligated to be there,” he added.
Alves’ friend who was with him that night testified the football player drank wine and whisky before going to the nightclub.
His 31-year-old wife Joana Sanz told the court on Tuesday that he appeared very drunk when he got back to their Barcelona home that night and she had not wanted to talk to him because of “the state he was in”.
Alves “smelled of alcohol” and on entering the bedroom “he bumped into several pieces of furniture and collapsed on the bed”, she told the court.
Alves initially denied knowing the woman in a TV interview but later acknowledged having sex with her, saying it was consensual. He told La Vanguardia newspaper in June that he had lied because he was afraid his wife would leave him.
The player has been in detention since he was arrested in Barcelona in January 2023. His requests to be released on bail have been repeatedly denied by the courts which considered him a flight risk because of his wealth.
Brazil does not extradite its own citizens when they are sentenced in other countries.
The case has attracted significant attention not only because of Alves’ profile but because gender violence has become an increasingly dominant topic in Spain’s public discourse.
It is one of the most high-profile trials in Spain since a law passed in 2022 made consent a key element in sexual assault cases and increased minimum prison time for assaults involving violence.
(With inputs from Agencies)
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