• Crime
• Spain

Barcelona, Spain, Feb 22 (EFE).-

Brazilian soccer player Dani Alves was sentenced Thursday to four and a half years in prison after a Barcelona court found him guilty of raping a woman. Alves, who has been in custody since being arrested just over a year ago, raped a woman in the bathroom of a private room at a nightclub in Barcelona on 30 December 2022, forcing the victim’s will “with the use of violence”, the court found.

The court sentenced Alves to four and a half years in prison, five years of probation and a nine-year restraining order.

The former FC Barcelona star must also pay the victim 150,000 euros for the crime of sexual assault.

At trial, which was held from February 5 to February 7, the prosecution had asked for nine years in prison for Alves, while lawyers for the complainant had asked for a 12-year sentence.

The court said it was proven that Alves had “abruptly grabbed” the victim, thrown her to the ground and, preventing her from moving, raped her, “even though the complainant said no, that she wanted to leave”.

According to the court, “for the existence of sexual assault it is not necessary that physical injuries occur, nor that there is evidence of heroic opposition by the victim to sexual intercourse”.

Alves had denied the charges.

During the police investigation, the former Barça star changed his account of what happened on Dec. 30 four times.

He first claimed that he did not know the woman, before admitting that had met her in the bathroom of the nightclub, but that they had had no sexual relations.

When he was confronted with damning biological evidence, he said the woman had performed consensual oral sex on him, before finally testifying that he had had consensual sex and that he had lied to police in order to hide his infidelity from his wife, Spanish model Joana Sanz, who has since ended their relationship. EFE

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