It was five months ago on Tuesday that Dani Alves entered the prison of Brians 2, in Sant Esteve de Sesrovires, accused of raping a 23-year-old woman in a reserved bathroom of the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona. Twenty-four hours earlier, the former international soccer star receives La Vanguardia in a prison lobby. He wants to give his version. To explain in his own words his account of some events that pointed him out in court as a rapist.
“I am not a rapist. I’m not a sex offender. Just as I wasn’t what I was being told, by those who threw bananas at me, in football. I have the mental and moral strength to shield myself from injustices and stigmas.”
Dani Alves (Juazeiro, Brazil, May 6, 1983) occupies booth two of the communications module. He is dressed entirely in black and has a backwards cap and visor, which give him a more amiable appearance than he used to display on the other side of the bars. He smiles and gestures with one hand, with the other he holds the intercom with which he communicates with the journalist, and with his eyes, which he opens and closes with intent.
With no time to ask anything, he takes the opportunity to apologize to his wife, Joana Sanz. He does it publicly, because public, he assures, was the offense. “I am certain that I was not wrong when choosing Joana. Although maybe she did make a mistake with me.”
Did you know Sutton?
“Of course. I know all the workers and managers and I thought they appreciated me. No person can say that in all these years they have been involved in a single incident. My behavior has been exemplary. That’s why I still don’t understand how they acted that morning.
What does it refer to?
When the woman leaves the bathroom behind me, I stand by my table for a while. When I left the disco I knew that I passed near the woman, who was already crying. I didn’t see her. If I had seen her crying I would have stopped to ask. And if at that moment someone in charge of the nightclub had asked me to wait because a young woman said that I had sexually assaulted her, I would not have gone home, I would have gone to the police station to clarify what had passed I left calmly. I didn’t run away from anything or anyone.
And traveled to Mexico.
Of couse. In some media they already explained that a young woman accused me of sexual assault and I called my lawyer, Miraida Puentes, who checked with the police and the courts and assured me that there was no complaint and that could leave Spain with complete peace of mind.
The victim claims that she repeatedly asked him to let her out of the bathroom.
No. We barely spoke.
Who suggests going to the bathroom?
I know that bathroom exists. We had been dancing together for a while. We hadn’t kissed, but it was obvious from the movements and looks that there was an attraction.
They are seen talking.
Yes, nonsense. There is a moment when we got very close and I suggest going to the bathroom. I tell him I’ll go in first and wait for him. I came to think that she had changed her mind and wouldn’t go in because it was taking so long. I was already going out the door when I saw him approaching. I moved to one side and he accessed the space first and then the bathroom. I went in behind him. I didn’t even lock the door.
[ It should be remembered that in the various judicial documents in which Alves’ provisional freedom has been denied, the magistrates disassociate what happened previously in the reserve from the facts reported by the woman. Alves’ defense has indeed used these previous moments recorded by the security cameras, but to warn that the story the woman gave in court does not match the images. There are no cracks in the version that the victim has offered in these five months about what she reports happened in those twenty minutes in the bathroom.]
She says he didn’t let her out. That he threw her to the ground. That he slapped her. That he insulted her. In the hospital they found an injury.
None of this is true. But each with his own conscience. At no time did he tell me to stop. He didn’t make any sign of wanting to leave. The door was open the whole time, he could have left because I was sitting on the toilet lid the whole time.
And the woman’s fingerprints on the mirror and the sink?
[For the first and only time in the entire interview, Alves does not answer suddenly.]
I don’t know at what point he touched them. But none of the movements she has explained that I forced her to do are true and the scratch was due to having been on her knees during fellatio. There was not a single mark on her body that explained the violence with which she says I treated her in the bathroom.
She leaves the bathroom after you. He collapses and complains. Why should I do it if, as you say, it is not true?
I do not know. It occurs to me that there is someone who gave her bad advice. That he felt bad after doing it, that he took a step forward and that since then he has not been able to get out of the mess he got himself into and what he got me into. I think of his conscience. There hasn’t been a single night that I haven’t slept soundly. I have a clear conscience. I have never intentionally harmed anyone. And neither did she that night.
In a few hours he offered three versions. he lied
If someone has ever really loved, if they have known, like me, real love, they must know that, to keep that love, one does anything. And I lied. I was afraid of losing Joana and that’s why I lied.
Didn’t his lawyer advise him?
He had been waiting in a dungeon for hours. I didn’t know where I was going, or what would happen to me. That was not the important thing.
But he lied.
Yes, but as soon as I told my wife what happened that night and asked for her forgiveness, I wanted to testify again and tell the truth. I’m living a nightmare. I hope one day it will end.
Rapist is one of the worst labels you can wear.
I know, but even if I’m convicted and spend the years here, I’ll walk out the door with my head held high and apologizing to the only person I owe an apology to, my wife.
I keep thinking about the woman, 23 years old, on leave since then.
Me too and I often wonder why he did it. Was she really the one who made the decision to report? I do not know. But my conscience is at peace, serene and calm. Only she and I know what happened and what didn’t happen in that bathroom, in those 20 minutes. Nobody else.
[In his first appearance before the investigating judge, the victim waived possible financial compensation.]
