Former FC Barcelona and Brazil legend Dani Alves was sentenced to four and a half years in jail on Thursday, 22 February 2024 by a court in Spain, after being found guilty of raping a 23-year-old woman in a night club in Barcelona.
Before he was sentenced to prison, Alves had been held in pre-trial detention since January 2023, and had changed his remains on several court trials.
Alves first denied knowing his accuser only to claim later that he had met her in the toilet at the nightclub but nothing thereof between the pair.
Alves later changed his version of the occurrence again, saying that he had consensual sex with the 23-year-old woman.
It was alleged that Dani Alves and his friend had bought champagne for three young women before Alves lured one of them to a VIP area of the nightclub with a toilet, where the rape incident was believed to have occurred.
Although Alves eventually admitted to doing the act, there was evidence other than the victim’s testimony to prove that she had been raped.
The proof shows that Alves abruptly grabbed the complainant and threw her to the ground, preventing her from moving while raping her.
After the verdict was passed, the lawyer of Dani Alves argued for a lenient sentence because he was drunk on the night of rape after the claims from Dani Alves’s wife Joan Sanz, but the court contended that his alcohol intake had no bearing on his actions.
A nine-year prison term was what the prosecution had requested. In Spain, a rape allegation is looked into under the general heading of sexual assault, and those found guilty face terms ranging from four to fifteen years in jail.
The court decided on Alves’s prison sentence based on the part of his decision to pay the victim €150,000 (£128,500) in damages, regardless of the trial’s outcome, according to Spanish media.
The 40-year-old Brazilian footballer is one of the most decorated footballers players in history with 41 trophies, including a treble and sextuple with Fc Barcelona.
It is no doubt that Dani Alves success as a footballer was with FC Barcelona; Alves played more than 400 times for the Catalan giants, winning six league titles and three Champions Leagues across two spells with the club with two trebles and a sextuple.
He has won trophies playing for Sevilla, Juventus and PSG, and is among Brazil’s most capped internationals with 126 appearances.
His lawyer had asked for his acquittal and claimed she would appeal against the verdict.
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Story by: Rabbi Adu Agyei |univers.ug.edu.gh
