Dani Alves trial for alleged rape in Barcelona nightclub to be held on February 5-7 

The trial of former FC Barcelona footballer Dani Alves for allegedly raping a woman in a Barcelona nightclub will be held on February 5 to 7, 2024. 

Alves is accused of sexually assaulting a 23-year-old woman on the night of December 30, 2022. The incident took place in the bathroom of a VIP area at the Sutton nightclub in the Catalan capital. 

The woman's lawyers are asking for a 12-year prison sentence for Alves – the maximum legal time allowed for crimes of sexual assault with penetration – in addition to more than €150,000 in compensation. Public prosecutors are asking for a nine-year prison sentence.  

Alves has been in preventive detention since January and has changed his lawyer twice, having been refused bail on several occasions. 

Rape 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. 

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. 

None of Alves' versions have helped him get out of prison on bail, nor has he been able to convince the judge that he did not pose a flight risk. 

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.