Former Brazilian Footballer Dani Alves Convicted of 2022 Nightclub Assault in Catalan Capital.
Brazilian footballer Dani Alves has been convicted and given a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022. Spain’s Catalonia region’s highest court issued the ruling on Thursday. Despite Alves consistently claiming that the encounter was consensual, the court ordered him to compensate the victim with 150,000 euros ($163,000).
“The sentence acknowledges that it has been established that the victim did not provide consent and that there is evidence, in addition to the plaintiff’s testimony, supporting the conviction for rape,” stated the Provincial Court of Barcelona in a release.
The prosecutor had requested a nine-year prison sentence for Alves. The verdict remains subject to appeal.
The 40-year-old former Barcelona defender was arrested in January of last year and has been in custody since then.
This case has garnered significant attention not only due to Alves’s prominence but also because gender-based violence has become a prominent topic in Spain’s public discourse.
It stands as one of the most notable trials in Spain since the enactment of a law in 2022 that stipulates consent as a crucial factor in sexual assault cases and increases the minimum prison sentence for assaults involving violence.
Alves’s legal representatives were not immediately available for comment.
“We are satisfied as the sentence acknowledges what we’ve been asserting all along: that the victim was truthful and endured suffering,” stated lawyer David Saenz to reporters outside the courthouse. He added that his team would continue to evaluate whether the sentence aligns with the severity of the crime.
Alves, who amassed over 40 trophies for Brazil and clubs such as Barcelona, Sevilla, Juventus, and Paris St Germain, was terminated by his then-employer, Mexican club Pumas UNAM, following his arrest.
