The Spanish Public Prosecution is seeking a nine-year prison sentence for Brazilian defender Dani Alves, who is accused of raping a young woman in a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022, the Public Prosecutor’s Office announced Thursday.
Prosecutors also demanded that Alves, who has been imprisoned in Spain since his arrest in January, pay compensation of $163,000 to his alleged victim and “prevent Alves from approaching her,” according to a copy of the indictment seen by AFP.
The former star of Barcelona, Spain, and Paris Saint-Germain, France, was arrested in January after being accused of raping a young woman in the bathroom of a nightclub in late December.
The trial date for the 40-year-old Brazilian international, who is left without a club after the Mexican UNAM decided to terminate his contract as a result of the charge against him, has not been set.
The Brazilian was arrested without bail because the court investigating him felt that it was risking the possibility of him fleeing if he was released from prison.
When the story came to light and before he was suspended, Alves pleaded his innocence in a television interview and denied knowing the woman.
But when investigators questioned him after his arrest, he changed his story and insisted that what happened was consensual.
Al-Fish said in an interview with the Spanish newspaper Lavanguardia, which was his first since his arrest and imprisonment, “My conscience is completely clear regarding what happened that night in the Sutton nightclub.”
He added, “What happened and what did not happen. What did not happen is to say that I forced this woman to do anything that we did.”
He revealed to the newspaper that he lied at first because he was afraid that his wife would leave him if he admitted that he was with another woman, saying, “I fought desperately to save my marriage from infidelity, without worrying about the consequences that I pay today.”
At the time of the alleged rape, Alves was on holiday in Barcelona after defending Brazil’s colors at the World Cup in Qatar.
Alves, the most successful football player in the world with 43 titles, lived the best periods of his career in Barcelona between 2008 and 2016. He won 23 titles with the Catalan club, including 3 Champions League titles, 6 Spanish League titles and 4 local cups.
At the World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year, at the age of 39 years and 210 days, he became the oldest Brazilian player to participate in the World Cup Finals.
Additional sources • AFP
2023-11-23 20:39:59
#Brazilian #Dani #Alves #faces #years #prison #rape
