Until ten in the morning today, the defense and the prosecution in the trial against Dani Alves for sexual assault with penetration have had time to reach an agreement to avoid holding the trial. It has been an intense and discreet weekend for some parties, accused and victim, who from the first moment evaluated the option of an agreement that implies the unconditional recognition of the facts, the payment of civil liability much higher than the 150,000 euros that At the time, the investigating judge decided not to suspend a sentence that should not be less than four years.
On January 20, 2023, the former international soccer star was taken to Brians 2 prison, where he has remained completely alone for the past year in his cell in module 13, intended for prisoners convicted of sexual crimes against minors. A year in which the Brazilian has managed to go unnoticed after the first weeks of expectation in which the rest of the inmates queued up to have shirts or soccer balls signed.
Once the euphoria of the first moment has subsided, the soccer player maintains the gym routine, soccer games in the patio of the module and practically daily visits from his lawyer and friend since the first days, Miraida Puente; in addition to Bruno Brasil, the chef, bodyguard and guy for everything who accompanied him in the early hours of December 31, 2022 at the Sutton and who will be one of the 30 witnesses who will testify at the Barcelona Court.
A hearing that will be held in section 21 of the old courthouse on Paseo de Lluís Companys in Barcelona and for which journalists from half a world in which football is more than just a sport have been accredited. The communication office of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia closed the accreditation period on Friday at three in the afternoon with a count of 270 professionals, 40 foreigners, from 70 media outlets, 23 from outside Spain. The press officers have set up rooms throughout the building to accommodate the greatest number of reporters.
The three parties, prosecution, prosecution and defense, asked the three judges of the court to hold the trial behind closed doors. The judges considered it, but finally opted for an intermediate measure that did not spare the complaint from the Col·legi de Periodistes de Catalunya for limiting the work of informants.
It should be noted in advance that the confidentiality of the victim's identity was not only guaranteed during the trial, but this has also been the case during the year of investigation, as it could not be otherwise. Different is the statement of the accused, who during the investigation had no problem offering an interview, precisely to La Vanguardia, recounting his version of what happened in that bathroom and which will be the same one that he will maintain at trial. The court's agreement, reflected in an order, prohibits the dissemination of statements, not only of the accused, but also of the thirty witnesses that the parties called to testify to the stand.
They will be questioned by the Sutton staff who worked that morning and who attended to Alves in the booth and then took care of the victim, who left that night accompanied by a friend and a cousin. Also Bruno Brasil, who was with Alves that night and who hours after the event, already outside Sutton, exchanged private Instagram messages with one of the complainant's friends.
The police officers who treated the young woman at the nightclub will also be questioned. The first patrolman and the shift leader of the Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district who tried to calm her down and who, inadvertently, recorded the young woman with the security camera that she had been activated since she left the police station. The doctors from the Clínic hospital who visited her that morning when she was taken by ambulance from Sutton will also be questioned.
Victim and accused will testify separately, and the court will ensure that there is no type of eye contact.
In any case, Alves' lawyer, Inés Guardiola, has told her client that there is room to achieve an acquittal and that she will convey doubts about the victim's version to the court. In fact, she will question her about her decision to access that bathroom in the booth. She will not question the fact of entering, but she will tell the magistrates that during her investigation the young woman declared that she crossed that door, not knowing where it led, and afraid of what could happen to her and her friends. The Brazilian's defense will warn that the images from the nightclub's cameras show how the complainant remains in the booth for ten minutes, talking with one of her friends, without any fear being evident about her decision to follow the player's steps to the door. in which I was waiting for him.
During the investigation, the two investigating judges who have dealt with the matter, as well as the magistrates of the Barcelona Court who have denied the accused's repeated requests for freedom, have always assessed the “veracity of the story” of the victim, before the accused's version changes.
