Dani Alves’ trial for alleged sexual assault to start Monday in Barcelona

Editor’s Note: The following story offers with sexual assault, and could also be distressing for some readers.

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BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — After spending a yr in a Spanish jail, Brazilian soccer star Dani Alves will go on trial this week for allegedly sexually assaulting a younger lady at a Barcelona evening membership.

Alves, a former Barcelona participant, is accused of sexually assaulting the girl on the evening of Dec. 30, 2022. He denies any wrongdoing. The trial is scheduled for Monday by means of Wednesday at a Barcelona courthouse.

State prosecutors are looking for a nine-year jail sentence for Alves if convicted whereas the attorneys representing his accuser need 12 years.

Under Spain’s 2022 sexual consent regulation, the crime of sexual assault takes in a wide selection of crimes from on-line abuse and groping to rape, every with completely different potential punishments. A case of rape can carry a most sentence of 15 years.

Alves, now 40, was arrested on Jan. 20, 2023 after answering a police summons throughout a go to to Spain. A court docket ordered him to be jailed after analyzing the preliminary police investigation and listening to testimony from the alleged sufferer, witnesses and the participant himself.

Before he was indicted by an investigative decide in August, Alves’ attorneys unsuccessfully tried to discredit testimony by his accuser and different witnesses by presenting safety digicam footage on the nightclub. The court docket has stated that any alleged flirting shouldn’t “in any way justify an eventual sexual assault.”

Alves’ requests for bail have been denied as a result of the court docket thought-about him a flight threat, although he supplied at hand over his passport and put on a monitoring gadget. Brazil doesn’t extradite its personal residents when they’re sentenced in different international locations.

Alves has modified his defence a number of instances.

At first, he denied having ever seen the girl when he went dancing on the Sutton nightclub in one in every of Barcelona’s upscale neighborhoods.

Upon his arrest, he denied any sexual contact together with her, solely to confess three months later to a sexual encounter that he stated was consented to by the girl. He stated he had been attempting to save lots of his marriage by not admitting to the sexual encounter initially.

And after his indictment, he reportedly has alleged that he was drunk as an extenuating circumstance.

Alves has modified attorneys 3 times. At the trial he might be represented by Inés Guardiola, a defence specialist, who he employed in October.

The alleged sufferer is represented by Ester García, a specialist in prosecuting intercourse crimes.

The trial might be earlier than a three-judge panel presided over by Justice of the Peace Isabel Delgado. Twenty-eight witnesses will give testimony between Monday and Tuesday earlier than the court docket hears specialists on Wednesday. The court docket will determine on Monday when Alves and his accuser testify.

The court docket has ordered that the accuser’s testimony might be behind closed doorways and that no picture of her may be taken to guard her identification. That determination got here after a video circulated on social media final month that allegedly recognized the girl.

Three days after his arrest, Alves was transferred by officers for security causes to the Brians 2 jail about 45 minutes northwest of Barcelona. He has been there ever since.

Alves has been ordered to put aside 150,000 euros ($162,000) to pay his alleged sufferer if he’s discovered responsible and ordered to pay damages.

Alves’ arrest shattered his picture of a charismatic winner with a prolonged and profitable profession.

He received main titles with a number of elite golf equipment, together with Barcelona, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain. He additionally helped Brazil win two Copa America trophies and an Olympic gold medal at age 38. He performed at his third World Cup, the one main title he’s not received, in 2022.

The proper again was a key a part of Barcelona’s golden years enjoying between 2008-16 as a teammate of Lionel Messi. He received the Champions League 3 times throughout that stretch with the Catalan membership, which he briefly rejoined in 2022.

Alves had his contract with Mexican membership Pumas terminated instantly after his arrest.