The Brazilian footballer Daniel Alves denied that he had committed a sexual assault against a woman in a Barcelona bowling alley and assured that the alleged victim he was free to leave “at any time”during his statement on the last day of the trial against him in the Spanish city.
“I could leave at any time, I was not obliged to be there”declared Daniel Alves about the young woman, and assured that he is not “a violent man”, during a brief statement of around 20 minutes, in which he only responded to his lawyer. “At no point did he say anything to me, we were simply both enjoying it,” insisted the former Barcelona and PSG player, 40 years old, who has been in preventive detention for more than 12 months for the alleged events that occurred on the night of December 30 to 31, 2022.
Prosecutor Elisabeth Jiménez considered, however, that the woman presented an “absolutely credible story” since the investigations began, and assured that the Brazilian full-back used “violence” to force the young woman, and maintained her nine-year request. of jail.
As in the two previous sessions, Dani Alves, handcuffed, was escorted by the agents to the room. Dressed in a white sweater, dark pants and glasses, he continued the hearing in silence and with a serious expression, until four hours into the session – after the testimony of experts who attended to the alleged victim and the viewing of videos from security cameras – It was his turn to speak.
At first calmly – but at times with his voice broken by emotion, especially when he remembered when he found out that he was being investigated – Alves related that that night, when he had “drank a lot”, he met the complainant in an exclusive area. at the Sutton nightclub, they danced and, after a “sexual tension” arose, he suggested that they go to the bathroom.
Once inside, according to her version, they had consensual relations and at no time did he slap her or grab her hair, as the young woman reported. “I’m not that kind of man,” added the Brazilian, who justified his changes in his version during these months by his initial attempt to tell a story that his wife “could forgive.”
Dani Alves does not convince the Public Ministry
Dani Alves’ explanations did not convince the Public Prosecutor’s Office, which maintained its request for a sentence of nine years in prison, in addition to the payment of compensation of 150,000 euros (about $162,000) to the woman and another decade of supervised freedom after serving the sentence. sentence.
“If at a certain time [la joven] It says ‘up to here’, it’s ‘up to here’. The Lord Alves cannot continue if the victim does not give her consent,” the prosecutor stressed about what could have happened in the bathroom of the private room, shortly after Alves and the complainant – who testified on Monday under a series of measures to protect her anonymity – met in the VIP area of the premises.
In that cubicle, according to the prosecutor, Dani Alves attacked her and forced them to have sexual relations, despite the woman’s attempts to prevent it, who “did what she could.” The Brazilian’s lawyer, Inés Guardiola, however, requested the acquittal of her client, arguing that the athlete could not “know that the complainant had revoked her consent.” In case of conviction, the lawyer mentioned alcohol consumption as one of the possible mitigating circumstances.
After three days that aroused great media attention, the three judges of the court will deliberate a sentence that could take a few weeks. Almost thirty witnesses appeared during these days, among them the two companions of the young woman that night, who confirmed the state of shock in which she left the bathroom, “crying inconsolably,” according to her friend, and reporting that the soccer player had done “a lot of damage.”
Several of the police officers and employees of the premises who attended to the complainant – currently undergoing psychological treatment – also influenced her state of “shock”, as well as her initial reluctance to report the events. “She told me that they were not going to believe her, that she had entered voluntarily, but that she then wanted to leave it and couldn’t,” said one of the people in charge of the room.
The testimonies from the environment of Daniel Alves They focused, for their part, on highlighting that the footballer had drunk a lot, although his friend Bruno, the only one who accompanied him that night, highlighted that he maintained a “respectful chemistry” with the woman.
Source: Ambito
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