Barcelona Court Set For Dani Alves’ Rape Trial Monday


Former Brazil football star, Dani Alves will go on trial Monday in Barcelona for alleged rape of a woman at an upscale nightclub, with prosecutors seeking a nine-year jail sentence.

The high-profile trial is scheduled to start at 10 am (0900 GMT) at a court in Spain’s second city where the 40-year-old former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain player has been in jail since his arrest in January 2023.A young woman accuses Alves of raping her in a bathroom of the VIP area of the upscale Sutton nightclub in Barcelona in the early hours of December 31, 2022.

Alves has said he had consensual sex with his accuser after initially denying knowing the woman during a television interview

Public prosecutors have demanded Alves receive a prison term of nine years and pay his alleged victim 150,000 euros ($162,000) in compensation.

Since the court rejected a request from the prosecution for the trial to be held behind closed doors, the media will be able to follow the proceedings, except for when Alves’ accuser takes the stand.

Her identity will not be revealed, and she will not have to be “visually confronted with the accused”.

According to the prosecution, Alves knew the layout of the nightclub well and was there that night with a friend. He was on holiday in Barcelona at the time after playing for Brazil at the World Cup in Qatar.

After offering champagne to the young woman and her friend, Alves allegedly invited the woman to enter a small enclosure at the nightclub, which she says she did not know was a lavatory.

Once inside the footballer showed a violent attitude towards the woman, whom he forced to have intercourse despite her resistance, prosecutors say according to the indictment.

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