The former Barcelona and Brazil footballer Dani Alves has been sentenced to four years and six months for the rape of a 23-year-old woman in a Barcelona nightclub in December 2022.

A written statement from the Audiencia Nacional in Barcelona asserts that the victim did not to consent to sex with Alves and that evidence presented to the court, in addition to the victim’s statement, proved that she had been raped. Alves denied wrongdoing and his lawyer, Inés Guardiola, has said they will appeal.

The prosecution had demanded a nine-year sentence and the victim’s legal team asked for 12. Alves’s sentence is barely more than the minimum of four years and because he has completed a quarter of his sentence on remand, he could soon be released on licence.
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The 40-year-old was ordered to pay €9,000 (£7,700) for physical damage to the victim and offered to pay compensation of €150,000, which the court considered an attenuating circumstance when passing sentence. He will be under legal supervision for a further five years as well as having a restraining order banning him from contact with the victim for nine years and six months.

The ruling suggests a shift away from the “victimisation of the victim” which hitherto has put the burden of proof regarding consent, or the lack thereof, on the victim. Legislation from 2022 states that “proof of the existence of sexual aggression is not dependent on there being physical injuries nor on the victim putting up an heroic opposition to having sexual relations”.

Spain’s vice-president, Yolanda Díaz, said she hoped the sentence would set an example. “This is over in our country, enough of machismo and sexual aggression that we women suffer in all walks of life,” she said.

Women has always been bringing great men down and it seems it will continue.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/feb/22/dani-alves-sentenced-to-four-and-a-half-years-in-jail-over-sexual-assault-barcelona-brazil