Dani Alves' accuser seeks 12-year jail term for alleged sexual assault 

The woman accusing former FC Barcelona footballer Dani Alves of rape has requested a 12-year prison sentence for her alleged attacker, as reported by El Periódico and confirmed by the Catalan News Agency (ACN). 

She says the Brazilian star raped her in the Sutton nightclub’s bathroom, in Barcelona, on December 30, 2022. Alves has been in prison since January 20, after the Barcelona Court of Appeals rejected his release on three occasions because he posed a flight risk.  

Prosecutors recently requested a nine-year prison sentence for Alves, but the plaintiff has asked for three more years, the maximum legal time allowed for crimes of sexual assault with penetration.  

Both the prosecution and the plaintiff are seeking compensation of €150,000, which the victim initially waived but is now demanding.   

In addition, prosecutors are also asking for a six-year ban on contact and communication with the victim and another six years of supervised release.    

The former football player has changed his story several times, but none of his versions helped him get out of jail. Nor did his efforts to prove his roots in Catalonia and therefore minimize his risk of escape.  

For the past several months, Alves’ defense team has been trying to negotiate a plea bargain with the prosecution and the plaintiff to no avail.   

The defense must now present its case for the trial scheduled to take place at the Barcelona court in early 2024. 

Accusation  

Alves was reported to the police for sexual assault by a 23-year-old woman who accused him of raping her in the bathroom of a VIP area at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona on the night of December 30, 2022.  

The former Barça player has changed his version of events three times, initially denying that he knew the woman, then saying that sex was instigated by her, then that she performed oral sex on him while he was defecating in the toilet, and finally that it was consensual penetrative vaginal sex.  

According to the version of events from the alleged victim, which has been consistent since the beginning, the Brazilian footballer invited her and two friends to the VIP area on the night of December 30. 

After dancing and flirting with them, Alves allegedly took the woman with him through a door, which she says she thought was a space to smoke. 

Once inside, she was surprised to find herself in a small bathroom and wanted to leave, but Alves allegedly forced her to have sex with him against her will. 

The woman's version has been corroborated by several security cameras, witnesses, her fingerprints on the toilet, Alves' DNA on her clothing and vagina, and injuries she sustained that are consistent with her story.