BRAZILIAN FOOTBALL STAR SENTENCED TO FOUR YEARS BEHIND BARS FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT

Brazilian football star Dani Alves has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a young woman in a Barcelona nightclub, a Spanish court ruled on Thursday.

A three-judge panel sentenced Alves to four years and six months in prison and ordered that he pay 150,000 euros to the victim.

The 40-year-old former Barcelona defender was arrested in January last year and has been held on remand since.

The court said in a statement: “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.”

Alves had maintained the sex was consensual and denied any wrongdoing during a trial that took place over three days in February. The prosecutor was seeking a nine-year prison term and the decision could be appealed.

The case has attracted significant attention not only because of Alves’ profile but because gender violence has become an increasingly dominant topic in Spain’s public discourse.

It is one of the most high-profile trials in Spain since a law passed in 2022 made consent a key element in sexual assault cases and increased minimum prison time for assaults involving violence.

Under Spain’s sexual consent law, sexual assault takes in a wide array of crimes from online abuse and groping to rape, each with different possible punishments. A case of rape can receive a maximum sentence of 15 years.

Alves won 42 trophies during his playing career, including three Champions Leagues with Barcelona and two Copa Americas with Brazil. He played in his third World Cup in Qatar in 2022.