Former FC Barcelona soccer player Dani Alves in a picture from 2022. Andre Penner (AP)
The court in Barcelona has agreed to try footballer Dani Alves, accused of sexually assaulting a young woman at the Sutton nightclub on December 30, 2022. In an order published this Tuesday, the court confirms the order presented by the instructor to complete the investigation and order the opening of the trial against the football player.
Under this order, the parties have five business days to present their preliminary qualifications, during which they must discuss whether Alves should be acquitted or convicted and what punishment they believe should be imposed in this case.
Prosecutors and private prosecutors will seek an eight-year prison sentence for the former Brazilian soccer player, while his defense will argue that the relationships were consensual and seek an acquittal, according to La Vanguardia newspaper.
The judge of the Instructional Court No. 15 of Barcelona prosecuted the footballer on July 31, concluding that there was enough evidence to send him to trial for the crime of sexual assault with carnal access to a 23-year-old girl place. The judge imposed bail of 150,000 euros to cover possible compensation for the victim.
Alves has been temporarily in prison since January 20 and since then his defense has requested his release several times, which both the trainer and the court in Barcelona have rejected. In the court’s last decision on the measure in June, the judges concluded that none of the maneuvers promoted by the former Barça player (a new statement, the analysis of the surveillance cameras, the registration of his children) had served to to release him. According to the order with which he was detained in prison, the evidence collected by the Mossos d’Esquadra, especially the fingerprints found in the toilets of the VIP area, not only does not falsify the victim’s story, but rather confirms it. .