The Barcelona Prosecutors’ Office is requesting a nine-year prison sentence for former Barcelona and Brazil defender Dani Alves for alleged sexual assault.
Alves was arrested at the Mossos d’Esquadra de Les Corts police station in Barcelona on January 20 and has remained in custody since.
Alongside requesting nine years in jail, the Prosecutors’ Office are asking for Alves to pay the alleged victim €150,000 (£130,500) in compensation and for him to not be allowed within one kilometre of the woman.
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The 40-year-old was denied bail in February and last week the judge at Spain’s National Court declared that a trial will take place. A date for the trial has not yet been set.
Furthermore, the prosecution — who believe there is sufficient evidence to put Alves in the dock over the alleged rape — is against the request from Alves’s new lawyer, Ines Guardiola, to allow the footballer to be released on bail.
“We consider that there are sufficient rational indications to agree to the opening of the oral trial in the terms requested by the Public Prosecutors’ Office and the private prosecution,” the magistrates said last Tuesday.
Once the prosecutor and defence team submit their conclusions and evidence to the court, a trial date will be set.
Alves allegedly assaulted a woman in a Barcelona nightclub on December 30. He has denied the allegation.
Alves’ defence has requested on several occasions that he be released. Neither the judge overseeing the case nor the Barcelona provincial court have accepted this request.
The Brazilian was playing for Mexican side Pumas UNAM at the time of his arrest, having left Barcelona for a second time in June 2022. Pumas then terminated his contract.
Across two spells, Alves played 408 times for Barcelona, winning La Liga six times and the Champions League three times. He was also part of Brazil’s World Cup squad last year.
(Photo: Zhizhao Wu/Getty Images)
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