Speaking on the last day of his trial, former Brazilian footballer Dani Alves denied on Wednesday having attacked the young woman who accuses him of having raped her in December 2022 in a nightclub in Barcelona (Spain), affirming that she she “could leave at any time” if she had wanted to.
“I am not a violent man,” Alves declared again during a testimony of around fifteen minutes before the Barcelona court which has been trying him since Monday. He faces a sentence of nine years in prison. The alleged rape of which Alves is accused took place on the night of December 30 to 31, 2022 in a posh nightclub in the great Catalan metropolis.
Letting his emotion show at times, Alves, who answered his lawyer’s questions, claimed to have indicated that he was “a regular customer” of this nightclub. According to him, he arrived on the scene with a Brazilian friend around 2:30 a.m. after having drunk a lot. “I started dancing with the complainant,” he continued, ensuring that the young woman was dancing “glued to me”. “There was sexual tension and I started talking to him so we could go to the bathroom,” Alves said.
In response to a question from his lawyer, he assured that he did not have to insist “at all” that she follow him. “At no time did she say anything to me (…) If she had wanted to leave, she could leave at any time, she did not have to be there,” said the former PSG player. According to the prosecution, Alves on the contrary then had a “violent attitude” towards the young woman, whom he allegedly forced to have sexual relations.