Barcelona and Brazil full-back Dani Alves sentenced to four and a half years in prison for sexual assault

Former Barcelona and Brazil full-back Dani Alves has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison after being found guilty on the count of sexual assault on Thursday morning in Spanish court.

“The ruling considers that it has been proven that the victim did not consent and that there are elements of evidence, in addition to the testimony of the complainant, to understand rape occurred,” the court said in a statement.

Having been arrested in January last year as part of an investigation for an alleged sexual assault case filed by a 23-year-old woman in Barcelona, Alves has repeatedly denied the charges and refuted the claims of a sexual penetration. The Brazilian footballer would later go on to acknowledge the fact that he had lied in his previous testimonies in an attempt to ‘save his marriage’.

On Thursday, he was adjudged guilty and sentenced to a further five years of ‘supervised’ freedom upon release and requested to pay €150,000 to the victim plus legal fees.

Alves has also been told that he cannot communicate with the victim for nine years and six months or go within one kilometre of her.

The case of the Spanish public prosecutors, who had been seeking a nine-year imprisonment statement against Alves, was strengthened by testimony of five people including the alleged victim.

Alves, who played over 400 matches for Barcelona across two spells, has been in custody since January 2023 and had been held in a prison near Barcelona before his trial began in February 2023.