2024-02-05T17:50:58+00:00
A-
A
A+
/ A Spanish court rejected, on Monday, the request of former Brazilian footballer Dani Alves to be given more time to prepare for his criminal trial on charges of sexually assaulting a woman in Barcelona in 2022, justifying this by saying that he was being tried by the media.
The former Barcelona defender, 40, was arrested in January last year in the Spanish city and has been held in prison ever since.
The prosecutor is demanding that Alves be sentenced to nine years in prison and pay 150,000 euros ($163,215) in damages to the victim.
Alves initially denied any encounter with the woman, whom he said he did not know, before later revealing that they had met “consensually”.
Alves, wearing blue trousers and a white shirt, sat in the front row of the Barcelona courtroom, the highest in the province, as his trial began today.
His mother, accompanied by one of his brothers, blew him kisses and made a heart-shaped sign with her hands, while Elves entered the room in handcuffs accompanied by police officers.
The three-judge panel rejected a request from Alves’ lawyer, Enes Guardiola, to postpone the trial on the grounds that he had not been given enough time to prepare for his first interview with police after his arrest and subsequent media trial.
The case attracted a lot of attention because Alves is one of the greatest players of all time.
Alves’ trial is expected to last three days.