Former Barcelona player Dani Alves sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for rape
Former Barcelona player Dani Alves has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for raping a young woman in the bathroom of a booth at the Sutton nightclub in the city. The incident occurred on December 30, 2022, and the victim’s will was forced with “the use of violence.”
The sentence, which also includes five years of probation and nine years of removal from the victim, in addition to a compensation of 150,000 euros, was notified on Thursday. Alves, a former Brazilian defender, has already been in preventive detention for a year.
The trial took place on February 5 and 7, during which the prosecution had requested nine years in prison for Alves and the private prosecution, twelve. The court applied the mitigating factor of reparation for the damage and confirmed that Alves “grabbed the victim roughly”, threw her to the ground, prevented her from moving, and raped her “despite the fact that the complainant said no and that she wanted to leave.”
The Court added that “for the existence of sexual assault, it is not necessary that physical injuries occur, nor that there be evidence of heroic opposition on the part of the victim to having sexual relations.” The ruling has sparked outrage among fans and sports enthusiasts around the world.