Dani Alves file image©AFP
Former Brazilian national soccer star Dani Alves went on trial in Barcelona on Monday for allegedly raping a woman at an exclusive nightclub, with prosecutors seeking a nine-year prison sentence. The high-profile trial will begin at 10am (9am GMT) in a court in Spain’s second city, where the 40-year-old former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain player has been in prison since his arrest in January 2023. It is scheduled to start on. A young woman accused Alves of raping her in the bathroom of the VIP area of Barcelona’s exclusive Sutton nightclub in the early hours of December 31, 2022.
Alves initially denied knowing his accuser in a television interview before saying the sex was consensual.
Prosecutors asked Alves to be sentenced to nine years in prison and to pay 150,000 euros (about $162,000) in restitution to the alleged victim.
The court rejected a request by prosecutors to hold the trial in private, allowing the media to watch the trial except when Alves’ accusers take the stand.
Her identity will not be revealed and she will not have to “face-to-face with the defendant.”
Prosecutors said Alves was familiar with the nightclub’s layout and was there that night with friends. At the time, he was on holiday in Barcelona after playing for Brazil at the Qatar World Cup.
Alves allegedly offered the young woman and her friend champagne before inviting her into a small enclosure at the nightclub, which the woman said she did not know was a toilet.
Once inside, the soccer player displayed a “violent attitude” towards the woman, forcing her to have sex with him despite her resistance, prosecutors said.
“The victim repeatedly asked the defendant to let her go and wanted to leave, but the defendant prevented her from doing so,” the indictment said, describing the young woman’s “situation of distress and fear.” ing.
“A clear conscience”
Prosecutors said the woman was treated after leaving the nightclub and was being treated for “high overall post-traumatic stress.”
In June, Alves told the Barcelona-based daily La Vanguardia that he initially lied about knowing his accuser because he feared that if he admitted to being with another woman, his wife would voluntarily tell him. He said it was because he was afraid of her leaving him.
He told the newspaper: “I have a really clear conscience about what happened that night in the toilets in the VIP area of a nightclub in Sutton.”
“What happened and what didn’t happen is that I forced this woman to do everything we did.”
Spanish courts have repeatedly rejected requests for Alves to be released pending trial, citing the risk of him fleeing to his native Brazil, which does not normally extradite citizens.
There is a possibility of plea bargaining in Spain right up until the start of the trial, in which Alves could plead guilty in exchange for a lighter sentence.
The accuser’s lawyer denied in November that such an agreement had been reached, but acknowledged that “discussions” had taken place at the request of the player’s legal team but no agreement had been reached.
The trial is scheduled to end on Wednesday.
After his arrest, Alves was fired from his Mexican club Pumas UNAM.
During a highly successful career, Alves won 42 trophies, including three Champions Leagues with Barcelona and two Copa Americas with Brazil.
At the 2022 World Cup, he will become the oldest player to represent Brazil in soccer’s marquee tournament.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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