Brazilian footballer Dani Alves, accused of rape by a young woman, will be tried for sexual assault – a criminal category including rape in Spain – the superior court of Catalonia confirmed to Agence France-Presse on Monday July 31. A trial date has not yet been set, the court said, adding that the charges against the 40-year-old former FC Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain player, jailed since January, would be the same as those mentioned in the investigation, being “a misdemeanor of sexual assault”.
According to the Spanish press, the investigating judge in charge of the investigation summoned the footballer to a hearing on Wednesday to notify him of the trial and accompanied the opening of the proceedings with a deposit of 150,000 euros not intended to allow a released from prison, but imposed as a “collateral” to be advanced to cover possible harm.
“Severe clues”
This same judge had twice rejected the player’s request for release, highlighting Dani Alves’ “high risk of absconding” “linked to the high sentence that may be imposed on him in this case”, the “severe clues incriminating him and his “enormous financial means which could allow him to leave Spain at any time”.
Without aggravating circumstances, the player faces a sentence of up to twelve years in prison. Dani Alves, who was then under contract with the Mexican club Pumas, is accused by a young woman of having raped her at the end of December 2022 in the toilets of a fashionable nightclub in Barcelona. He has been incarcerated since January 20 in the Brians prison complex, about forty kilometers from Barcelona.
One of the most successful footballers in history, Alves had the most glorious period of his career at Barça, between 2008 and 2016, with which he won 23 trophies. He also played for Juventus Turin and Paris Saint-Germain.
