Soccer

Dani Alves trial: Police testify accuser wants ‘justice’

After being escorted in handcuffs into the Barcelona courtroom, Dani Alves sat in silence and listened to a stream of witnesses give testimony through the second day of his sexual assault trial on Tuesday.

Alves is accused of sexually assaulting a lady within the toilet of an upscale Barcelona nightclub early within the morning of Dec. 31, 2022.

He has denied any wrongdoing.

State prosecutors are in search of a nine-year jail sentence for Alves if convicted whereas the attorneys representing his accuser need 12 years.

His accuser testified on Monday, the beginning of the three-day trial, behind closed doorways on order of the court docket. State prosecutors requested for the court docket to take further measures to guard her id after a video circulated on social media final month that allegedly recognized the girl.

In testimony beforehand given to state prosecutors final 12 months, the girl mentioned she met Alves in a VIP space of the Sutton nightclub after midnight the place she had gone with a pal and a cousin. She mentioned she accompanied Alves into a personal toilet the place he allegedly slapped her, used insulting language and raped her.

Alves has mentioned the encounter was consented by her.

The lady’s pal and cousin testified on Monday that once they noticed her after she exited the toilet she was distraught and advised them Alves “hurt her badly” by forcing her to have intercourse with out her consent.

On Tuesday, cops who attended to the alleged sufferer testified she was significantly shaken and advised them she had been sexually assaulted by Alves. The officers mentioned she needed to overcome her fears that “nobody would believe her” earlier than she formally denounced Alves.

One officer mentioned the girl advised him “I don’t want money, I want justice.”

The nightclub supervisor, who activated a sexual assault protocol by counseling the girl and calling police, mentioned she advised him she entered the toilet with Alves “voluntarily but later she wanted to leave and he would not let her.”

Alves’ pal, who was additionally an worker of the Mexican soccer membership Pumas the place Alves was taking part in, additionally testified. The pal, who accompanied Alves that evening, mentioned Alves drank wine and whiskey earlier than going to the nightclub. According to his pal, Alves and the alleged sufferer danced collectively and confirmed “chemistry” earlier than going into the toilet. He mentioned he hadn’t seen something improper with the girl afterward.

Alves’ spouse, Joana Sanz, advised the court docket that Alves was “smelling of alcohol” when he arrived to their residence outdoors Barcelona early within the morning. Sanz, Alves’ spouse since 2017, mentioned that she has not legally requested a divorce, after having mentioned that she needed one after the scandal broke.

Alves can have his flip to talk to the three-judge panel on Wednesday.

The 40-year-old Alves has been in pre-trial jail since being detained on Jan. 20, 2023. His requests for bail had been denied as a result of the court docket thought-about him a flight threat, regardless of his supply handy over his passport and put on a monitoring gadget. Brazil doesn’t extradite its personal residents when they’re sentenced in different nations.

Alves modified his protection a number of occasions through the investigative part whereas in custody.

At first, he denied having ever seen the girl when he went dancing on the evening in query. Upon his arrest, he then denied any sexual contact together with her, solely to later admit to a sexual encounter that he mentioned was consented to by the girl. He mentioned he had been attempting to avoid wasting his marriage by not admitting to the sexual encounter initially.

Alves has been ordered to put aside €150,000 ($162,000) to pay his alleged sufferer if he’s discovered responsible and ordered to pay damages.

This is the primary high-profile intercourse crime trial since Spain overhauled its laws in 2022 to make consent, or the dearth thereof, central to defining a intercourse crime in response to an upswell of protests after a gang-rape case through the San Fermin bull-running competition in Pamplona in 2016. The laws popularly often called the “only yes means yes” regulation defines consent as an specific expression of an individual’s will, making it clear that silence or passivity don’t equal consent.

Under the regulation, the crime of sexual assault takes in a wide selection of crimes from on-line abuse and groping to rape, every with completely different punishments. Rape can carry a most sentence of 15 years.

On arriving on the courtroom below police escort, Alves shrugged his shoulders when requested by reporters if he thought he could be discovered harmless.

Alves received main titles with elite golf equipment together with Barcelona, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain. He additionally helped Brazil win two Copa Americas and an Olympic gold medal at age 38. He performed at his third World Cup, the one main title he isn’t received, in 2022.

Alves’ contract with Pumas was terminated instantly after his arrest.


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