Daniel Alves could be tried this month; what is known about the case

Daniel Alves completes nine months in prison in Brians 2 prison in Barcelona, ​​Spain, in October. The player, currently without a club, faces charges of sexual assault on a young woman in a nightclub in Barcelona, ​​in December 2022. The investigation was closed in July and the Brazilian, according to the Spanish press, should be tried between October and November. He turned 40 while in prison. His arrest took place on January 20, when he presented himself to the Spanish Court.

In August, the same week that the Barcelona Court decreed the end of the investigations, Daniel Alves, together with his defense, gave up any new appeals in order to speed up the trial and become a defendant in the process.

“Dani Alves has been dissatisfied with the report of the facts contained in the court decision, which do not match the reality of what happened”, stated a note sent to Estadão at the time. “However, (Daniel Alves) also stated that he will not appeal the resolution to speed up his trial. The complaint is a necessary step in forwarding the case to the judge of first instance.”

What is known about the Daniel Alves case

There is still no set date for the trial. Since the beginning of the investigations, Daniel Alves even gave an interview denying that he had raped the young woman. On January 5th, on the program “Y Ahora Sonsoles”, on the Spanish channel Antena 3, he confirmed that he was at the Sutton nightclub on the date of the incident, but denied the attack and claimed that he did not know the woman. The versions changed throughout the evolution of the investigations.

He played in the World Cup in Qatar until mid-December 2022. Afterwards, he returned to football in Mexico, where he had a contract. After being arrested, Pumas broke their agreement. During this period, Daniel broke up with his wife, Joana Sanz, and had the company of his closest children and mother in Barcelona. Another prisoner at the complex even stated that the Brazilian was being persecuted by inmates.

The case had its first repercussions in the Spanish press last year. On December 31st, the diary ABC revealed that Daniel Alves had sexually assaulted a young woman at the Sutton nightclub the day before. The woman was accompanied by friends at all times and the nightclub’s security team called the police, who took the victim’s statement.

On January 10, the Spanish court accepted the complaint and began investigating the Brazilian player who played for Barcelona for many years. Inconsistencies in the versions given by the athlete to the Court, in addition to the possibility of fleeing the European country, led judge Maria Concepción Canton Martín to order Daniel Alves’ arrest on January 20, a Friday, after giving testimony.

Barcelona’s Instruction Court 15 is conducting the investigation. In the contradictions, Daniel Alves even said that he did not know the woman who accused him. He later revealed that he had sexual relations with her, but consensually. The Public Prosecutor’s Office’s request for the athlete to be detained also occurred because of a possible risk that he would “flee” Spain, in the midst of the process.

Voluntary testimony

The Brazilian gave a voluntary statement to the police, without the presence of his lawyers. The full-back was in Spain with Joana Sanz, his wife and model, because of his mother-in-law’s wake. In January, she asked the press to respect her privacy during this period.

At the time he was detained, Daniel had a contract with Pumas, from Mexico, and had played in the World Cup in Qatar with the Brazilian team. On the same day he was provisionally arrested, the club announced the termination of his relationship with the team. Cristóbal Martell, who has already defended Barcelona, ​​Lionel Messi and some Spanish businessmen and politicians, was hired to handle the case.

Release requests denied

Daniel returned to testify in Spanish court in April. According to local legislation, a person, as an investigator, can testify as many times as he deems necessary during the judicial process. Furthermore, the defense tried, on several occasions, for the player to respond freely, but the request was denied each time.

In this new statement, he once again reiterated that the victim had consented to the sexual relationship. Furthermore, he stated that the multiple versions he offered about the case were a way of hiding his infidelity to his wife Joana Sanz. Even indicating that she would separate from the player, the model continued with her prison visits and even congratulated him on his birthday in April. This week, according to the Spanish channel Telecinco, she gave up on the divorce, so as not to abandon the player at this time.

What could be the penalty for Daniel Alves?

In October 2022, Spain’s Penal Code was amended with the addition of a new law, which provides that sexual crimes must be classified according to the victim’s consent. Called “Only yes is yes”, the law began to consider all non-consensual sexual acts to be violence. The player’s arrest is maintained until the end of the trial.

According to the newspaper The world, Daniel Alves could be sentenced to a sentence of eight to ten years in prison. At the beginning of February, eight witnesses, who were present in the early hours of the morning when the case allegedly occurred, gave evidence in Spanish court: a friend and the complainant’s cousin, two waiters from the Sutton VIP area, the nightclub doorman, the director of the nightclub, responsible for activating the protocol against sexual assault and calling the police and two other people who were at the nightclub that night.