On Monday, the high court of Catalonia informed AFP that Dani Alves, a Brazilian defender, would be tried in Spain for alleged sexual assault.
The allegations stem from an incident in late December, where the former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain star was accused of raping a young woman in the bathroom of a nightclub. In January, he was detained in connection with the case.
As of now, the court has not scheduled a date for the trial. However, the 40-year-old Brazilian, Dani Alves, remains in custody without bail due to concerns from the investigating court that he might attempt to flee.
When the news of the allegations first surfaced, and prior to his arrest, Alves gave a television interview where he initially denied knowing the woman involved in the case.
But when questioned by investigators after his arrest, he changed his story, insisting that they had had consensual relations. Alves, who could face up to 12 years in jail if found guilty, defended his innocence in an interview published in June, saying he has a “clear conscience”.
“I have a really clear conscience regarding what happened that night in the bathroom of the VIP area of the Sutton nightclub,” he told the daily newspaper La Vanguardia in his first interview since his arrest.
“What happened and what didn’t happen. And what didn’t happen is that I forced this woman to do anything that we did,” he added.
In the June article, he told La Vanguardia that he had lied at first because he was afraid his wife would leave him if he admitted he had been with another woman.
At the time of the incident, Alves was on holiday in Barcelona after playing for Brazil at the World Cup in Qatar. After his arrest, Alves, who is being held in the Brians penitentiary complex outside Barcelona, was sacked by his Mexican club Pumas UNAM. In a highly successful career, Alves won 42 football titles, including three Champions Leagues with Barcelona and two Copa Americas with Brazil.
