Former Barcelona player Dani Alves has been found guilty by a Barcelona court and sentenced to four and half years in jail for sexual assault.
The 40-year-old football player from Brazil was found guilty of assaulting a woman sexually early on New Year’s Eve in December 2022 in a posh Barcelona nightclub.
Alves allegedly sexually assaulted the victim in a restroom. The victim also received an order from the court for him to pay her 150,000 euros ($163,000).
The victim did not consent to sexual activity, the court decided, and there is proof of the rape that Alves is suspected of committing in the VIP area of the Sutton nightclub early on December 31, 2022.
Three weeks after the incident, he was taken into custody and has remained there ever since. He is charged with “sexual assault with penetration.”
Alves was ordered to serve nine years in prison and ten years of probation by the prosecution. In addition, they demanded that he honour the court-mandated payment of $163,000 (€150,000) in compensation to the victim.
Alves maintained his innocence throughout the trial. Alves claimed in detention that he had no sex with her while the case was being looked into.
Subsequently, he acknowledged having sex but claimed it was consensual. He claimed that by initially refusing to acknowledge the encounter, he was attempting to preserve his marriage.
Alves claimed to have lied at first because he was worried that his wife Joanna Sanz would leave him, according to the Catalan newspaper La Vanguardia.
