The trial of Dani Alves begins: First images of the footballer after a year in detention

The legal process against footballer Dani Alves, who faces accusations of raping a young woman in the bathroom of the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona in December 2022, began this Monday with the discussion of preliminary issues by the accusations and the defense.

In that sense, the first images of the former FC Barcelona player came to light since January 2023, when he was preventively detained. Alves was seen crestfallen, wearing a white flannel and blue pants, accompanied by a Mosso d’Esquadra.

The Barcelona Court scheduled three days for the trial, extending until Wednesday. The Prosecutor’s Office requests a sentence of nine years in prison, while the private prosecution, represented by the victim, requests 12 years.

The first session of the trial began with the presentation of preliminary allegations, where both the accusations and the defense can present their last-minute arguments and requests to the court.

Alves has been in preventive detention since January 20, 2023, the date on which he was detained by the Barcelona Police (Mossos d’Esquadra) in his lawyer’s office after a 23-year-old girl reported him for rape that occurred on night of December 30, 2022.

The footballer was transferred from the prison in a police vehicle and remained in the Court’s cells until the agents took him to the room where the trial is being held.

For her part, the victim will testify behind closed doors, with her pixelated image and distorted voice, while the two friends who accompanied her on the night of the incident at the Sutton nightclub are scheduled to testify as witnesses at the trial.

While the Prosecutor’s Office seeks a sentence of nine years in prison and compensation of 150,000 euros ($160,983), the victim raised her request to 12 years in prison, the maximum for a crime of sexual assault.

The defense, represented by lawyers Inés Guardiola and Miraida Puente Wilson, requests the acquittal of Alves, arguing that there was no rape and that the sexual activity with the complainant was consensual. Despite this, they raise mitigating circumstances, such as drunkenness and the payment of 150,000 euros as bail, in the event of a possible conviction.

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