Prosecutors to appeal Dani Alves sexual assault sentence
Former Barça footballer sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for rape committed in 2022
The public prosecutor’s office has decided to appeal the prison sentence of former Barça football player Dani Alves, arguing that the €150,000 in compensation that Alves paid to the victim shouldn’t reduce the sentence as much as it did.
A formal appeal has not yet been filed, but the prosecutors will focus it on the importance judges gave to Alves’ compensation.
Alves was found guilty of sexual assault committed at the nightclub Sutton in Barcelona in December 2022.
He was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, although public prosecutors asked for nine and the victim’s lawyer asked for the maximum sentence of 12 years.
Trial
The court's decision came two weeks on from Alves' three-day trial, which took place from February 6 to 8.
On the first day, the victim testified behind closed doors, confirming what she had said during the investigation, that Alves invited her and two friends to the VIP area on the night of December 30, 2022.
After dancing and flirting with them, Alves took the woman with him through a door, which she said she thought was a space to smoke. Once inside, she was surprised to find herself in a small bathroom and wanted to leave, but Alves forced her to have sex with him against her will.
The woman's version was corroborated by several security cameras, witnesses, her fingerprints on the toilet, Alves' DNA on her clothing and vagina, and injuries that are consistent with her story.
A friend of the victim said that after the assault the woman was "heartbroken like never before," and said repeatedly "it hurt me a lot, it hurt me a lot."
On day two of the trial, Joana Sanz, Dani Alves' wife, told the court that her husband arrived home "very drunk" at 4am on December 31, 2022 "reeking of alcohol."
He collided with a wardrobe and a table before he collapsed on the bed, Sanz said.
Defense lawyers subsequently asked for Alves to be acquitted or, alternatively, a one-year prison sentence, stressing alcohol as an extenuating factor.
Alves testified on the third and final day of the trial, saying that the relations he had with the woman were consensual at all times and that they were both "enjoying themselves."
"I'm not violent," Alves told the court, adding that at no point did the woman ask him "to stop or to leave."