The trial of Dani Alves begins tomorrow at 10 Spanish time (6 Brasilia time) in Barcelona. The footballer is being tried for the rape complaint made by a young woman, which occurred in a nightclub on December 30, 2022, according to the indictment.
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The legal defense tried until the last minute to reach an agreement between the parties to avoid the start of the hearings in exchange for the former FC Barcelona full-back acknowledging his guilt and accepting a reduced sentence. The possibility of reaching this agreement receded after Alves’s mother spread the identity of the young complainant on her social networks, according to sources following the case.
The player’s procedural situation is not simple and is demonstrated by the constant changes in his defense strategy, which range from modifying his lawyers to giving different versions of what happened. The footballer went from denying the fact to now ensuring that he was under the influence of alcohol, in an attempt to seek acquittal or a lesser sentence.
The Prosecutor’s Office requested nine years in prison for the footballer, compensation to the complainant of 150,000 euros for the crime of “sexual assault with penetration” and another ten years of supervised or probationary freedom. For her part, the woman who accused the side requested a twelve-year prison sentence, the same amount of compensation and a one-kilometer restraining order for a decade.
Alves was arrested on January 20, 2023, after voluntarily appearing to testify in a Barcelona court regarding the rape complaint that a young woman had made a few days before. Since then he suffered several setbacks that prevented his release, as the judges understood that if he were released there was a risk of escape.
