Dani Alves convicted of rape: depressed and alone, how much time he will spend in prison and his lawyers’ strategy to reverse the sentence

It was rapeaccording to Spanish justice: the Barcelona court on Thursday sentenced the former Brazilian footballer Daniele Alves to four and a half years in prison because he believes that what happened in the bathroom of a nightclub in Barcelona, ​​​​in the early hours of December 31, 2022, between Alves and a 23-year-old girl was sexual violence.

The judges considered the young woman’s testimony valid.. “The type of absence of consent is satisfied with the use of violence and carnal access,” they ruled.

The court of section 21 of the Provincial Court of Barcelona communicated this on Thursday to the former Barça defender, who has been in preventive detention in the Brians 2 penitentiary center, 38 kilometers from Barcelona, ​​for a year and a month.

“For sexual violence to occur, physical damage does not need to occur. nor that there is evidence of heroic opposition on the part of the victim to having sexual intercourse,” they added.

AND They ruled out that drunkenness declared by Alves and some of his witnesses it was a mitigating factor assessing how aware the former footballer was of his actions when he locked himself in the bathroom of the nightclub with the girl he had just met.

The sentence, however, is not final. and can be challenged by the former player’s defense and by the legal team representing the girl who reported him.

The Brazilian’s lawyer, Inés Guardiola, confirmed on Thursday that he will appeal against the court’s decision. “I continue to believe in Mr Alves’ innocence,” said Guardiola, who, during the trial, had called for his client’s acquittal.

If there were no changes and the sentence was final, Dani Alves would be released in July 2027. Because the thirteen months of preventive detention should be deducted from the sentence of four years and six months.

The sentence also establishes that, once the sentence is completed, the former footballer will remain on probation for five years.

As for the young woman who reported him, Alves will not be able to approach her – within a radius of a thousand meters – or have any type of contact with her for nine and a half years.

As regards the compensation of 150 thousand euros requested by the defense of the attacked girl, the Brazilian had already deposited it in August last year. The Court took this “reparation for damage” into account when issuing its ruling.

The Prosecutor’s Office requested 9 years in prison for Alves. The defense of the young girl who reported him, 12 years old.

“They won’t believe me”

Alves was imprisoned on January 20, 2023when he appeared to testify at a Barcelona police station regarding a sexual assault complaint.

A 23-year-old woman claimed that in the early hours of the last day of the year 2022, in a VIP toilet at the Sutton nightclub, the former player had insulted, beaten and sexually assaulted her.

The bowling alley’s security cameras had caught them dancing and chatting in one of the booths.I know that Alves frequented the disco. But he couldn’t understand what had happened when they both walked through a door that they were locked behind for 16 minutes.

Alves went out first and left the bowling alley with a friend. The girl, who was with her cousin and a friend, began to cry and was assisted by Sutton staff who immediately activated the protocol for alleged acts of sexual violence.

“They won’t believe me,” the young woman repeated, saying that Alves had raped her..

According to the testimonies of her entourage and the club’s employees, when they convinced her to file a complaint, the girl initially declared that she would renounce compensation. She just wanted her attacker to be convicted. Then she changed her mind and received the 150 thousand euros that her lawyer had demanded for the damages that the trauma had caused him.

That morning in December 2022, the Catalan police took genetic sperm samples in the bathroom and on the body of the young woman admitted to the Cliníc hospital in Barcelona.

The twists in Alves’ statement and the journey that sent him to prison

In January last year, the Brazilian returned to Spain from Mexico, where he had a contract with the Pumas club, to attend his mother-in-law’s funeral. The Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan regional police, had been following in his footsteps for weeks.

The complaint against him that the girl had filed in the first days of January could have been unsuccessful if Alves had not returned to Spain. Brazil, its home country, does not extradite its citizens even if they are accused of committing crimes in other countries.

But Alves returned to Barcelona without problems in January 2023. He was calm. He had sent a video to a TV channel in which he stated that he had never seen the girl who reported him in his life.

He showed up at the police station to give his version but was arrested without bail. Since, has changed – up to four times – its story and defense attorney. He ended up admitting that he had had sexual relations with the young woman, by mutual agreement.

His requests for parole were rejected until his trial, which took place over three days in early February, and he paid compensation of 150,000 euros.

In the thirteen months that Alves was in prison, The club he played for terminated his contract and lost millions in advertising and image rights already agreed upon.

He completed 40 years behind bars and his second wife, Canarian model Joana Sanz, abandoned him first and, months later, forgave him. She was also one of the witnesses at the trial. She declared that that morning Alves had come home completely drunk, one of the mitigating factors in his defense to underline that what happened in Sutton’s bathroom was the fault of drunkenness.

The law of only yes is yes

The “Alves case” is the first media trial that takes place with the new law on sexual freedoms – known in Spain as the only yes in itself – in force.

This legislation considers consent, voluntary and without pressure, essential so that sexual contact between two people does not constitute a crime.

During the trial, Alves, who was the last to testify, assured: “He started dancing next to me, rubbing his parts with mine. And then he started, pardon the expression, twerking and getting more intimate”.

“He put his hand on me and started touching my parts. I thought there was sexual attraction and talked to her in case she wanted to go to the bathroom.. He said yes, I didn’t have to insist at all,” he said in his statement and also mimed what that sexual relationship would be like for which, according to him, the two had agreed.

The ruling of the Barcelona court, however, specifies that “consent can not only be revoked at any time, but also Consent must be given for each of the sexual varieties in the context of sexual intercourse and there is no evidence that, at least as regards vaginal penetration, the complainant gave her consent, and not only that, but that the accused submitted to the will of the victim even with the ‘use of violence’.

According to the ruling, “the defendant abruptly grabbed the complainant, threw her to the ground and, preventing her from moving, penetrated her vagina, even though the complainant said no, she wanted to leave.”

Demoralized and alone

“Mr. Alves is intact”his defense attorney said Thursday.

However The Catalan press says he no longer shares a cell in the prison’s sex offenders’ pavilion.who is alone and depressed in a small room that he himself cleans daily.

During the trial, followed by Clarín from Barcelona, ​​​​Alves spent the three days of the hearing in front of journalists, handcuffed and with his head bowed.

His mother, María Lucía Alves, and his brother traveled from Brazil to attend the three days in which nearly 30 witnesses testified.

Before the trial, María Lucía had spread images on social networks of the young woman who denounced her son who was dancing with friends. She revealed her name and questioned the consequences that the girl and her defense had left behind.

When will Dani Alves be able to enjoy his first releases?

Although we will have to wait for the appeals to take place, if the sentence announced on Thursday is final, Dani Alves could begin to be released from prison in July next year. At that point he would have served a third of his sentence.

With a final sentence and good behavior, he will only be able to spend weekends at home in April 2025.

It’s what Alves wants most right now. Joana, his wife, made this known in a letter that he sent her and which she, by mistake, made public for a few minutes on his Instagram account.

“In my imperfection, I learned that I cannot devote my time to what was, but rather transform my energy into what is. And the fact is, you are what I dreamed of,” Alves wrote.

“What I dreamed of and continue to dream of. I want to walk all the roads with you. I didn’t have the wrong woman, yes, it was you. There is not a single day, not a single moment, not a single plan in which you are not there,” she added.

“I pray every day for the day to come when I can see you wake up. Nostalgia is not not being able to do it now,” the letter to Joana says.

And so it ends: “Anywhere, anything, anything, but with you always by my side. I experience strange sensations. “I love you.”