Breaking News: Catalonia court sentences Dani Alves to prison over rape allegations

Dani Alves convicted of rape in Barcelona nightclub; plans to appeal sentence.

Dani Alves has been sentenced to four-and-half-year in prison for rape offenses by a Catalonia court, what next for the most decorated player ever to play the game? (Photo credit: GOAL)

Thursday's ruling by Catalonia's top court convicted former Brazil football player Dani Alves of raping a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022 and handed down a four-and-a-half-year prison sentence.

In addition, the victim was awarded €150,000 ($162,990) by the court.

"The sentence considers that it has been proven that the victim did not consent and that there is evidence, in addition to the testimony of the plaintiff, to consider the rape proven," the court stated in a statement.

Alves' attorneys informed reporters outside the courthouse that he plans to appeal the sentence, which also includes a nine-and-a-half-year restraining order and a five-year probation upon release, despite Alves's insistence that the sex was consensual.

A nine-year prison sentence was what the prosecutor was aiming for.

"We are happy that the sentence acknowledges our previous statements that the victim was telling the truth and that she suffered," the victim's attorney, David Saenz, told reporters. He also said that his team would continue to determine if the penalty was appropriate given the seriousness of the crime.

"We are going to appeal," stated Ines Guardiola, Alves' attorney, expressing her disapproval of the sentence. I continue to hold Dani Alves' innocence dear. Due to its length, we haven't read the entire line yet, but we will now go over it in more depth. We stand up for [Alves'] innocence."

After being charged with sexually assaulting a lady in the lavatory of a high-end Barcelona nightclub early on December 31, 2022, Alves, 40, was first taken into custody in January 2023.

Since then, Alves has stayed in preventive pre-trial custody in Spain after a judge rejected his repeated pleas for bail because he posed a flight risk.

Alves altered his testimony for the fifth time just before the trial started, and the case was heard over the course of three days in a Barcelona court earlier this month.

He insisted at first that he was unaware of the claimed victim. Later on, he claimed that he had encountered the woman in the club's lavatory but that nothing had transpired.

Upon receiving biological evidence, the former defender for Barcelona and PSG altered his account once more, claiming she had engaged in oral sex with him on a consensual basis.

After receiving the results of additional biological testing in April of last year, Alves made his first admission of having sex with the woman, saying it was consensual and that he had lied to his wife to conceal his adultery.

Alves admitted to being intoxicated that evening for the first time since the interview began before the hearing.

Alves says, "I am not that type of man," to his defense attorney when she asks about whether he coerced her into having sex during the trial.

The purported victim testified before state prosecutors that she willingly went into the toilet and danced with Alves, but that he afterward refused to let her leave. He raped her, humiliated her, and smacked her, according to her.

Alves refuted that claim. Alves stated, "We were both having fun," but he said that the woman never begged to go or showed any signs that she didn't want to have sex with him. He also denied insulting her or giving her a slap.