Cristina Rubio Barcelona

Barcelona

Updated Monday, February 5, 2024-11:04

Dani Alves

is already before the judge accused of sexual assault of a 23-year-old girl at the

Sutton

nightclub in Barcelona on the night of December 30 to 31. The oral hearing, which started this Monday a few minutes after 10:30, will last until Wednesday and the former footballer faces a sentence of between 9 and 12 years in prison.

The Brazilian has been transferred by a Mossos d'Esquadra van from the Brians 2 prison - where he was admitted on January 20, 2023 - to the headquarters of the

Barcelona Court

, in the center of the Catalan capital.

After a few minutes in the dungeons of the Palace of Justice, the Mossos took Alves to the courtroom following a different route than the usual one for prisoners on trial in this court and avoiding the press.

The Brazilian has reappeared dressed in a white shirt, jeans and white sneakers. His mother and his brother, as well as the family's team of lawyers, have come to the Palace of Justice.

The first session of the trial has started with the processing of preliminary allegations, which allows accusations and defenses to present before the court the last-minute allegations and requests that they consider appropriate, from the order of the statements to the requests for annulment of the investigation process. .

After a year and 15 days in preventive detention in Brians, the Brazilian arrives at trial after having changed his version up to five times: he has gone from defending that he did not know the victim at all to alleging that the relations were consensual, that he had been drinking more than necessary that night and that he was not aware of his actions, since he was "seriously impaired by alcohol consumption."

His lawyer Inés Guardiola - she took over from the media Cristóbal Martell and undertook a new turn in the defense - asks for Alves' acquittal. However, she also adds in her letter that the former soccer player was drunk when he invited the victim and his two friends to the booth at the Sutton nightclub. An important variable in the strategy since, if it is considered proven, it could be a mitigating factor in the sentence.