everything we know so far about the sexual assault charge

Three days ago, this Monday, the Spanish Justice determined the preventive arrest and without bail of right-back Daniel Alves, former Brazilian national team. The accusation is that the player would have committed a sexual assault against a woman in a nightclub in Barcelona, ​​Spain. Case that won the news, with the victim’s testimony, contradictions on the part of the athlete and next steps still to be taken. Because of this, EXTRA gathered everything that is known about it in order to enlighten the reader about the progress of the process.

Why was Daniel Alves arrested?

The player was detained by the Spanish police on the 20th, in Barcelona, ​​​​after testifying on suspicion of having sexually assaulted a woman at the Sutton nightclub, on December 30 of last year. Daniel Alves went to the police station in the early hours of last Friday and was taken away in a car a few minutes after 10am. The athlete denies the allegations.

Two days after the alleged sexual assault, the woman denounced the player for the facts. The woman’s complaint is judicialized and under investigation, as explained by the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia (TSJC). Authorities took the statement from the alleged victim in the early hours of Saturday, after the club’s owners alerted the Barcelona police.

Why did you choose preventive detention?

Because, according to a report by the newspaper “El Periodico”, from Barcelona, ​​Daniel Alves changed his version of what happened at the club three times in testimony to the Court of Justice. At the end of the day, the Spanish Justice determined the preventive arrest and without bail for the right-back.

First, the player denied sexual intercourse and any encounter with the young woman. Afterwards, he would have said that he was in the club’s bathroom when the woman entered, but that he had no contact with her. Finally, he admitted that he had sex with the alleged victim, but assured that the relations were consensual.

According to “El País”, Alves also said that the woman launched herself towards him to perform oral sex. He also stated that he hadn’t said anything to “protect” her.

The woman reports that Daniel Alves asked her to follow him, without her knowing it, to a door that led to a small bathroom in the disco. According to the statement, the winger introduced himself as a man called “Dani” and who “played petanque in Hospitalet, municipality of Spain”. However, the victim’s Mexican friends recognized him.

The side came very close to them and touched them. Then, he would have stayed behind the victim speaking in Portuguese, until he grabbed her hand and took it to his penis, something he repeated twice in the face of the woman’s resistance. The defender would have taken the woman to the bathroom and prevented her from leaving.

In the bathroom, the player would have sat on the toilet, pulling the woman’s dress up, and forced her to sit on it, uttering offensive expressions. Afterwards, he allegedly tried to force her to perform oral sex. After resistance, Daniel would have beaten the victim and put her on the ground to force relationship. Then, and always according to the woman’s testimony, he told her to wait to leave after him.

As soon as she left, the woman declared in court that only one of her friends was in the VIP area of ​​the disco. She was in shock and burst into tears. It was then that the security guards at the club spoke to her. At Hospital Clínic, the medical report included injuries to the body after the confrontation with Daniel Alves. She refused to receive any kind of compensation if the player is convicted.

Camera footage from the Spanish nightclub showed that Daniel Alves was locked in the bathroom with his wife for about 15 minutes.

What does Daniel Alves say?

In the only public statement so far, Daniel Alves denied the accusations of sexual assault.

“I would deny everything. Yes, I was in that place, with more people, enjoying it. And anyone who knows me knows that I love to dance. I was dancing and enjoying without invading other people’s space. I don’t know who this lady is. I never invaded a space. How am I going to do this to a woman or a girl? No, by God – said Daniel Alves to the Spanish program Y ahora Sonsoles.

— That’s enough (with the subject), because they are suffering, especially my people.

The evidence of the Spanish Police

There are indications that support the seriousness of the sexual assault complaint filed against Daniel Alves. The indications that the newspaper “El Periódico” has learned from the Spanish Justice so far are the following:

• 1 — Statement by the victim

The Unitat Central d’Agressions Sexuals (UCAS), a group of researchers from the Mossos d’Esquadra, lends credibility to the story of the woman, who assured, as the newspaper El Periódico advanced, that Alves had taken her to a toilet against her will in the club’s VIP area and was later slapped and sexually assaulted.

• 2— Medical information

After the alleged aggression, the woman was attended to by an ambulance called by the Sutton nightclub and transferred to the Hospital Clínic. There he underwent a medical examination. The report includes that she suffered minor injuries consistent with the alleged fight with the footballer. Biological samples were collected in the washbasin, which should be verified in the future if they are from Alves.

• 3 — The woman’s dress

The woman went to file a complaint against Alves two days after the incident. She told what happened and provided the medical report. She also handed over the dress she was wearing on the night of the alleged sexual assault. The researchers from UCAS, a two-and-a-half-year-old unit made up of 70% women, began the investigation.

One of the first checks undertaken by UCAS was to review security camera footage from the Sutton nightclub. According to the victim’s account, Alves insisted that she follow him. Then he went into the bathroom, where there are no cameras. According to the sources consulted, the recordings do not contradict his version.

• 5 — The video by Daniel Alves

Alves sent a video to an Antena 3 program a week after the events in which he denied the aggression and implied that he had gone to the bathroom and accidentally ran into the victim, who was inside. maintained during his testimony before the judge this Friday (20). To convict or acquit him, only the words he says in court will be taken into account, but the statements he made on the program could undermine the credibility of his testimony if it turns out that he lied.

The report that UCAS handed over to the judge includes recordings from the security cameras and also versions offered by witnesses who were with Alves and the victim. The player was with a friend, and the young woman with two friends. There are also explanations by the waiter who, at their request, encouraged the women to sit with Alves and his friend in the VIP room.

• 7 — Biological samples

A victim of sexual assault should always go to the hospital after the fact. Although it is very difficult, you must do it without changing clothes, taking a shower or going to the toilet, as the whistleblower did. It could be the key to identifying the aggressor because in the medical examination, which in Barcelona is always carried out at the Hospital Clínic, traces of DNA can be found in the fluids or hair of the aggressor and thus discover who it is. In the case of Alves, the victim has already identified the perpetrator of the crime. However, if the biological samples obtained from the whistleblower matched Alves’ genetic profile, there would be proof that, at least, what he publicly declared on Antena 3 does not correspond to the truth.

What are the next steps?

Daniel Alves is being held in the Brians I prison, where pre-trial detainees are held in Barcelona. He was arrested at the behest of Judge Maria Concepción Canton Martín, of the Investigative Court 15 of Barcelona. However, the arrest of the Brazilian player is not final yet.

His lawyers will resort to higher courts to try a habeas corpus for Daniel Alves, with the possibility of complying with alternative measures, such as having his passport withheld — and thus preventing a possible escape, one of the possibilities raised by the Justice when it determined his arrest. .

Daniel Alves is not yet considered a defendant by the Spanish Justice. Unlike what happens in Brazil, in Spain, Justice also investigates. There is the Juiz de Instrução (current phase of the player’s case), who also investigates the case, even though an inquiry has been opened by the police.

After these procedures, the case goes to the second stage, which is when the trial begins. If Daniel Alves is proven guilty, the penalty for his crime is up to 15 years. However, in some cases this penalty is reversed in the payment of fines and other milder punishments. However, the Spanish law on crimes of sexual violence was recently updated, making the punishments heavier for the aggressors.

Who has visited Daniel Alves in prison?

On the day of the arrest, his agents FranSergio Ferreira and Dinorah Sant’ana (who is also his ex-wife) traveled to Barcelona accompanied by a Brazilian lawyer who will support the player’s defense.

What about Daniel Alves’ club?

Pumas, from Mexico, announced the termination of the right-back’s contract. The decision was communicated in the form of a pronouncement (without the right to ask questions) by President Leopoldo Silva and occurred after the Brazilian had a preventive detention decreed.

“The Universidad Nacional club has taken the decision to terminate the employment contract with the player for just cause – said Leopoldo Silva: – With this decision, the club reiterates its commitment not to tolerate acts of any member of our institution, whoever it may be, that violate the university spirit and its values. The Universidad Nacional club is an institution that promotes respect and honest, dignified and professional behavior by its players on and off the pitch,” the statement said.

Liga BBVA MX, responsible for the first division of the Mexican Football Championship, had already commented on the case. In an official note, he stated that he would define the Brazilian’s situation together with Pumas as soon as he became aware of the lateral’s legal situation.

Why is it considered “sexual assault”?

Sexual assault, a term used to refer to the accusation against the lateral, is a broad concept in the Spanish justice code. But, in a nutshell, it refers to all acts “that undermine the sexual freedom of another person without his consent”. They can vary in severity and, consequently, in terms of punishment, ranging from 1 to 15 years in prison.

The term gained this breadth last year, when a law dubbed “Only yes is yes” expanded the scope of the crime of sexual assault. From then on, all non-consensual sexual acts were considered violence.

The change aimed to end the difference between abuse and sexual assault, until then two distinct categories of crimes but with heavier typifications in the second case. The idea behind this is that the lack of consent of the victim is the central element for defining the nature of the crime.

Therefore, acts without the use of physical violence or even forced penetration, the most extreme case and of which Daniel Alves is accused, are all treated as sexual assault by Spanish justice. In the latter case, the sentence can be from 4 to 12 years, with the possibility of reaching 15 years if some aggravating factors established by the penal code are detected (examples: participation of more than one person, use of weapons, the victim is in a state of of vulnerability due to age, illness or physical disability, among others). See how the Spanish penal code defines the violation:

“When the sexual aggression consists of carnal access by vaginal, anal or buccal route, or the introduction of bodily members or objects by any of the first two routes, the person responsible will be punished as a defendant for rape with a prison sentence of four to 12 years” , says article 179.