Former Barcelona player Dani Alves jailed for 4 and a half years

Former Barcelona player and Brazil national team member Dani Alves has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

This comes after a court in Spain found the 40-year-old defender guilty of raping a woman at a nightclub in Barcelona on December 31, 2022.

In addition to the prison sentence, he has been ordered to pay the victim £128,500 (Ksh 23.8 million).

He has also been sentenced to an additional five years of supervised release after being released from prison.

The Brazilian national is also prohibited from going within one kilometer of the victim and cannot contact the woman for nine years.

Dani Alves was arrested in January 2023 and has been in custody since then after bail requests were denied.

Prosecutors were seeking a nine-year prison sentence for the former footballer.

Prosecutors stated that Alves and his friend bought champagne for three girls before pulling one of them into the VIP area of the nightclub without her consent.

They said it was during this time that Alves became aggressive, forcing the woman into sexual acts despite her repeated requests to leave.

Alves had claimed that the woman could leave "if she wanted to." However, the court found that she did not consent.

In a statement, the court said there was more evidence than the victim's testimony that confirmed she had been raped.

It stated that Alves "suddenly grabbed the complainant" and threw her down. He then raped her while preventing her from moving as the "complainant said no and wanted to leave," it added.

The woman said the rape caused her "pain and fear," and one of her friends who was with her that night described how the 23-year-old girl cried "uncontrollably" after coming out of the bathroom.

Alves has been in custody awaiting trial since January 2023 and has changed his testimony several times.

Alves played for Barcelona over 400 times, winning six league titles and three Champions League titles in two seasons with the club. He was also part of Brazil's squad for the 2022 World Cup.