TheCable

Dani Alves, former Barcelona footballer and Brazilian international, has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison after being found guilty of sexual assault. 

Catalonia’s top court on Thursday found Alves guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022.

Alves had maintained that the sex was consensual.

“The sentence considers that it has been proven that the victim did not consent, and that there is evidence, in addition to the testimony of the plaintiff, to consider the rape proven,” the court said in a statement.

“Daniel Alves has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison after being convicted of sexual assault.

“The court also ordered him to stay away from his victim for nine and a half years and determined he should pay his victim 150,000 euros and pay costs.”

Ines Guardiola, the counsel to the former Barcelona player, kicked against the sentencing.

“We are going to appeal. I still believe in Dani Alves’ innocence,” Guardiola said.

“We haven’t read the whole sentence yet because it’s very long, but we are going to study it in detail now. We defend [Alves’] innocence.”

On his part, David Saenz, the victim’s lawyer, who had been seeking a nine-year prison term, said: “We are satisfied as the sentence recognises what we’ve been saying all along: that the victim was telling the truth and that she suffered”.

The 40-year-old was first arrested in January 2023 after being accused of sexually assaulting the woman in the bathroom of an upscale Barcelona nightclub. He was said to have committed the offence on December 31, 2022.

He had remained in preventive pre-trial prison in Spain ever since, with a judge turning down regular requests for bail and deeming him a flight risk.

Alves, regarded as one of the greatest fullbacks of all time, had two spells at Barcelona and also played for Seville, Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain, and Sao Paulo in a trophy-laden career.

Photo credit: Reuters