Brazilian soccer star Dani Alves is ready to offer testimony Wednesday earlier than a Barcelona courtroom over the past day of his trial for alleged sexual assault of a younger lady.
The 40-year-old Alves can have his probability to talk after spending two days listening to testimony from the alleged sufferer, witnesses and cops.
Alves is accused of sexually assaulting the girl within the toilet of an upscale Barcelona nightclub early within the morning of December 31, 2022.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
State prosecutors are looking for a nine-year jail sentence for Alves if convicted whereas the legal professionals representing his accuser need 12 years.
The three-day trial concludes Wednesday. A verdict usually takes weeks to be delivered.
His accuser testified on Monday behind closed doorways on order of the courtroom. State prosecutors requested for the courtroom to take additional measures to guard her id after a video circulated on social media final month that allegedly recognized the girl.
In testimony beforehand given to state prosecutors final 12 months, the girl mentioned she met Alves in a VIP space of the Sutton nightclub after midnight the place she had gone with a buddy and a cousin. She mentioned she accompanied Alves into a personal toilet the place he allegedly slapped her, used insulting language and raped her.
Alves has mentioned earlier than the trial that the intercourse was consensual.
A buddy and cousin of the alleged sufferer who went dancing together with her that night time informed the three-judge panel that after she exited the lavatory she was distraught and informed them Alves “hurt her badly” by forcing her to have intercourse with out her consent.
Police officers who attended to the alleged sufferer testified she was tremendously shaken and informed them she had been sexually assaulted by Alves. The officers mentioned she needed to overcome her fears that “nobody would believe her” earlier than she formally accused Alves.
Alves’ buddy who was with him that night time mentioned the soccer participant drank wine and whiskey earlier than going to the nightclub. According to his buddy, Alves and the alleged sufferer danced collectively and confirmed “chemistry” earlier than going into the lavatory. He mentioned he hadn’t observed something flawed with the girl afterward.
Alves has been in pre-trial jail since being detained on January 20, 2023. His requests for bail have been denied as a result of the courtroom thought of him a flight threat, regardless of his provide at hand over his passport and put on a monitoring machine. Brazil doesn’t extradite its personal residents when they’re sentenced in different international locations.
Alves modified his protection a number of instances throughout the investigative section whereas in custody.
At first, he denied having ever seen the girl when he went dancing on the night time in query. Upon his arrest, he then denied any sexual contact together with her, solely to later admit to a sexual encounter that he mentioned was consented to by the girl. He mentioned he had been making an attempt to save lots of his marriage by not admitting to the sexual encounter initially.
This is the primary high-profile intercourse crime trial since Spain overhauled its laws in 2022 to make consent, or the dearth thereof, central to defining a intercourse crime in response to an upswell of protests after a gang-rape case throughout the San Fermin bull-running competition in Pamplona in 2016. The laws popularly often called the “only yes means yes” regulation defines consent as an express expression of an individual’s will, making it clear that silence or passivity don’t equal consent.
Under the regulation, the crime of sexual assault takes in a big selection of crimes from on-line abuse and groping to rape, every with completely different punishments. Rape can carry a most sentence of 15 years.
Alves received main titles with elite golf equipment together with Barcelona, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain. He additionally helped Brazil win two Copa Americas and an Olympic gold medal at age 38. He performed at his third World Cup, the one main title he isn’t received, in 2022.
Alves’ contract with Mexican membership Pumas was terminated instantly after his arrest.
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
