Dani Alves has denounced, in the first session of the trial for raping a 23-year-old girl at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona, that he has been the victim of a “parallel trial” and a “social condemnation.” His lawyer, Inés Guardiola, has assured the court that the process has been plagued by “irregularities” and has violated the fundamental rights of the former FC Barcelona footballer. “He sits on the bench with the social conviction that he is guilty,” said the lawyer, who has requested the annulment of the proceedings.
The first major trial of the law of only yes is yes has started this Monday, punctually, in the Barcelona Court. Finally, there has been no agreement between the parties (defence, Prosecutor's Office and victim) that would have allowed Alves to reduce a possible prison sentence in exchange for an acknowledgment of the facts. The Brazilian full-back has been taken to the dock from prison – he has been in preventive detention for more than a year – through the elevators of the Palace of Justice. It is a special itinerary, which has prevented journalists from seeing his arrival at the room. Alves is accused of raping the young woman in the bathroom of the Sutton VIP room on December 31, 2022 and faces a request from the Prosecutor's Office for nine years in prison.
Section 21 of the Barcelona Court has reserved three days to judge the footballer, in preventive detention since January 20, 2023. That day, after being arrested, Alves appeared before the judge and gave up to three different versions of what happened in the toilet in the booths of the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona. Given these “contradictions,” the judge sent him to prison. Dressed in a white shirt and jeans, Alves took a seat in front of the magistrates while his lawyer began to raise legal questions about the progress of the trial.
The trial started after 10 hours with this process of preliminary issues, in which it is likely that Alves' defense will ask the courtroom to allow him to testify at the end of the trial, once the witnesses have been heard and the expert evidence has been presented. If the court agrees to this request, the trial will begin with the statement of the victim, who will be questioned behind closed doors – with her voice distorted and her face pixelated to avoid subsequent leaks of the recording of the hearing -, after which they will testify. the friends who were with her the night they met Alves at the Sutton nightclub.
While the Prosecutor's Office requests nine years in prison for the Brazilian international and the payment of compensation of 150,000 euros, the private prosecution brought by the victim – with lawyer Ester García – raises their request to 12 years in prison, the maximum for a crime. of sexual assault. The defense, carried out by the lawyers Inés Guardiola and Miraida Puente Wilson, requests the acquittal of Alves arguing that there was no rape and that the sexual relationship with the complainant was consensual, although it raises mitigating circumstances to mitigate the penalty in the event of a possible conviction: drunkenness and reparation for the damage for having paid the 150,000 euros that the judge imposed as bail to cover possible compensation to the victim.
The Prosecutor's Office has no doubt that Alves sexually assaulted the young woman, after introducing her to the small bathroom in the private room, using a “contemptuous and violent” attitude towards her, which caused the young woman such a feeling of “anguish and terror” that prevented him from reacting. According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, which gives complete veracity to the complainant's version, Dani Alves invited the young woman and her friends to drink champagne in the booth where they were and, after dancing and chatting with them, around 3:20 a.m. he invited the victim to follow him to an adjacent door that she did not know gave access to a private bathroom. Once there, the Public Ministry maintains, “he began to grope her with a lascivious intention and a clear intention of satisfying his sexual desires” and, in the face of the young woman's resistance and pleas to let her leave, he slapped her and ended up raping her without warning. use condom.
Throughout the three trial sessions, 28 witnesses will parade before the court, which includes staff from the nightclub, the friend who was partying with Alves when the events occurred and the athlete's wife, Joana Sanz, proposed by the defense to that proves that Sutton was drunk that night. They will also declare the mossos d'esquadra who treated the complainant and those who investigated the rape based on the analysis of the biological evidence collected in the bathroom of the private room, as well as the experts who issued biological and psychological reports on the victim.
A total of 270 professionals from 70 media outlets – 23 of them foreign – are accredited to follow Alves' trial, which will be broadcast to the press by internal circuit signal, although neither images nor sound of the hearing can be broadcast. with the exception of some shots of the accused sitting in the dock in the moments before the start of the trial.
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