After appeal denied, Daniel Alves awaits trial within 60 days

Daniel Alves’ arrest completed 31 days this Tuesday (21). Accused of rape in Spain, the player had his request for provisional release denied by the Court of Barcelona. The investigation stems from a complaint filed by a 23-year-old woman, who alleges she was sexually assaulted by Daniel Alves at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona, ​​where they both attended a party on December 30 last year.

Daniel Alves was arrested on the morning of January 20th after giving a statement to the police and later had preventive detention decreed. He is in the Brians 1 prison, located 30 km from Barcelona.

For the three judges responsible for the case, Eduardo Navarro, Myriam Linage and Carmen Guil, there was a risk of fleeing to Brazil because of their economic capacity and this weighed in when it came to denying the request for provisional release. In addition, according to them, there are several indications of the crime committed by the player.

NEXT STEPS

There is still no date for the trial to take place, but for Maristela Basso, a criminal lawyer and professor of International Law at the USP Faculty of Law, it is common for investigations of arrested defendants to have priority. “In non-complex cases, such as that of Daniel Alves, with the defendant’s confession, expert examinations already carried out and known and heard witnesses, the logical time should be 60 days until the trial takes place”, says the lawyer.

According to Maristela, the player’s defense must propose all the appropriate domestic resources and, if necessary, appeal to the UN Human Rights Commission and ask it to analyze the conditions of legality of the arrest.

Maristela understands that the decision of the Court of Barcelona does not follow due legal process, since “he is a primary defendant, with a good record, with the right address and work”. “The Spanish judiciary seems to have leaned towards public opinion,” she says.

SPANISH CRIMINAL CODE

Spain’s Penal Code was amended in October last year with a new law based on the idea that sexual crimes must be typified based on the victim’s consent. Thus, all crimes of a sexual nature, regardless of whether or not there was violence, became “sexual assaults”.

The law, called “Only yes is yes”, was created to expand the scope of the crime of sexual violence. All non-consensual sexual acts were now considered violence. Contradictorily, however, sentences for some sexual crimes have been reduced.

The Penal Code of Spain considers sexual aggression “acts of a sexual nature that are carried out with recourse to violence, intimidation or abuse of a situation of superiority or vulnerability of the victim”. The penalty provided is from one to 15 years for crimes of sexual assault, depending on the severity, but it can also be reduced to fines.