Former Barcelona and Brazil star Dani Alves could face nine years in prison if found guilty of s3xually assaulting a woman in a nightclub
Prosecutors are pushing for that sentence, plus £130,000 in damages and 10 years of probation, the EFE news agency said, after the case finally reached the trial stage in Spain.
Alves, 40, was arrested on January 20 and has been held in a prison outside Barcelona. The former Sevilla, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain defender denies any wrongdoing and claims it was consensual.
He was ordered to stand trial earlier this month having changed his testimony on four occasions.
Alves was denied bail by judges back in January after his arrest for the alleged s3xual assault in the bathroom of the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona on December 30.
He was playing for the Mexican club UNAM at the time and judges believed Alves was a flight risk. UNAM subsequently terminated his contract.
Alves said previously: ‘It will be proven that I am not guilty and it was a consensual relationship.
‘It would never cross my mind to impose a sexual act on anyone.’
His wife, the model Joana Sanz, appeared to confirm she had split from the footballer in a social media post dated March 15.
In a handwritten letter, she said ‘it will take years to erase from my memory his way of looking at me’ and ‘here is a strong woman moving on to the next stage of her life.’
Alves was held in custody at Brians 1, a prison in Catalunya at the centre of a number of controversies.
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