The Court will decide in a few days on the appeal presented by the defence lawyers of the former Barcelona and Sevilla player asking for the release of their client until the trial.
The prosecution is asking to keep Dani Alves in prison
Dani Alves will have to remain in pre-trial detention without bail until at least next week. The Court will decide in a few days on the appeal presented by the defence lawyers of the former Barcelona and Sevilla player asking for the release of their client until the trial. The prosecution is asking to keep Dani Alves in prison, as the DNA test has incriminated him. “The fear of releasing him is in case he flees,” explained journalist Carlos Quilez. Dani Alves has been remanded in custody without bail since January 20, awaiting trial on charges of raping a 23-year-old woman in Barcelona’s Sutton nightclub on December 30.
The lawyer Cristobal Martell has assured that the young woman did not present injuries compatible with rape
In the hearing held behind closed doors in the third section of the Barcelona Court of Appeal, the lawyer Cristobal Martell argued, according to ‘La Vanguardia’, that there was “vaginal penetration” and that the sex was “consensual”, and stressed that the victim had no vaginal lesions compatible with rape, again questioning the complainant’s version of events. Mayka Navarro reports that “the lawyer Cristobal Martell has assured that the young woman did not present injuries compatible with rape, stressing that the medical report from the Hospital Clinic to which she went the morning after the events did not identify vaginal lesions compatible with dry intercourse; nor injuries or marks typical of a reduction by force”.
Dani Alves called his wife Joana Sanz at least twice to assure her about his alleged rape
“There are reasons to doubt,” said Martell, who also argues that the images from the club’s cameras contradict the young woman’s version and that the injuries the young woman had on her knee were compatible with a consensual action due to the small size of the bathroom. For its part, the Public Prosecutor’s Office recalled that the biological tests confirm that the remains of semen found in the genital area of the girl correspond to the DNA of Dani Alves. The magazine ‘Semana’ published that Dani Alves called his wife Joana Sanz at least twice to assure her about his alleged rape in a club in Barcelona that he was drunk and did not remember anything. The ‘Programa de Ana Rosa’ claims that Dani Alves told Joana Sanz that “I don’t remember anything about that night because I was drunk”.
Alves helps where he can
‘El Programa de Ana Rosa’ got in touch with a fellow prisoner of Dani Alves in Brians 2 prison, who explained the footballer’s life behind bars: “Alves helps where he can. He buys things for people to eat and all those things. Dani helps and invites. He tries to go unnoticed and is very generous with people. He’s not a star. Some civil servants are happy for him, and others are happy to have him there”. On his rape allegation, Alves’ partner explains that “he doesn’t talk much, but what he says is that he hasn’t abused anyone, nor hit anyone. And that if the girl hadn’t wanted to, he wouldn’t have tried to do it. He didn’t force anyone.
The Brazilian player is facing an alleged offence of sexual assault
“He thinks he’s going to stay inside. When the girl says she doesn’t want money or anything, it affects him. But he believes he shouldn’t be in there, and he doesn’t feel good in there. All the versions Dani Alves had given until he confessed to the penetration were to hide the infidelity from his wife, the model Joana Sanz, who recently visited him in the Brians 2 prison in Barcelona. In his first statement, Dani Alves said he did not know the young woman, then he accepted having treated her, then that there was only groping, and now he has completely changed his statement.
According to the version of the complainant, revealed by ‘El Periodico’, in the club toilet, “Dani Alves forced her to sit on top of him, threw her to the floor, forced her to give him fellatio, which she actively resisted, slapped her, lifted her off the floor and penetrated her until he ejaculated”. Dani Alves is facing an alleged offence of sexual assault. According to the victim’s statement, which the investigating judge considers “forceful and persistent”, the player forced himself on her in a bathroom located in a reserved area of the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona on the night of December 30 to 31. Following the latest legislative modification, the penalties range from four to 12 years in prison when the aggression consists of access through the vagina, anus or mouth.