Since on the night of January 20 the footballer Dani Alves set foot in Brians 1 prison, to end up four days later in a cell in module 13 of Brians 2, his routines have not changed and he maintains the same exemplary behavior as the first day. Only once did the officials have to draw his attention. It coincided with Brazil’s carnivals: the man improvised a dance in his cell by beating everything he had at hand to the beat. Then the workers opened the door to remind him that this was no time or place for parties.
This Monday he will be released from prison for the first time since a judge in Barcelona sent him to provisional prison without bail, accused of having raped a 23-year-old woman on the morning of December 30 in a reserved bathroom of the Sutton nightclub. The footballer’s lawyer, Cristobal Martell, submitted a letter to magistrate Concepción Cantón a few days ago requesting to testify again. The hearing is scheduled for half past eleven in the morning in court 15 and will be behind closed doors. In addition to Martell and office colleague Arnau Xumetra, the victim’s lawyer, Ester GarcÃa, prosecutor Elisabeth Jiménez, and magistrate Concepción Cantón will be present. The Martell interrogation will begin, which will try to correct the chaos of versions that Alves gave in this same court on January 20, after he was arrested and brought before the court.
At that time he had already made public a video assuring that he had never seen the young woman who denounced him, to explain that after the woman entered the bathroom by surprise, he practically attacked her with the intention of fellatio and that he finally agreed to have sexual relations with her.
Alves will justify the different versions of that afternoon in court by assuring that he tried to avoid harming his wife at the time, Joana Sanz, and will explain that he met the young woman that same night in the reservation of the Sutton nightclub , where he arrived accompanied by his friend Bruno. That before entering the bathroom he danced and flirted with the complainant and this young woman’s friend, but more especially with the friend. And that the young woman had access to the reserved bathroom freely after both had previously agreed. The defendant’s account will be adjusted to the study of the images prepared by Martell’s office and which show the woman accessing the first door that gives access to a second one that leads to a small bathroom, two minutes after the player, and without it seeming that there is pressure or threats of any kind. The player will insist that the woman went there freely and knowingly. A statement in which the accused, as La Vanguardia has been able to learn from sources close to the footballer, will admit for the first time that the sexual relations were “consented by both” and that both agreed that he would go to the reserve first and then her, but not together so as not to raise suspicions.
The accused of having raped the young woman will explain that after leaving the bathroom he went to his table, had a drink, and approached a group of Mexicans who were right next door and chatted with them, without intention to leave and without the young woman or her companions admonishing him or recalling anything about what had happened. And he will also report that when he left the Sutton, through the corridor of the main door, he did not see the woman, who at that time was with her two companions and three workers from the disco telling that she had been raped in the bathroom reserved
After Alves’ new statement, they will ask, if they wish, the prosecutor, the victim’s lawyer and the magistrate; and it will be Martell’s decision, agreed with its client, if it responds to the parties, or this time remains silent. When they finish, the footballer will be taken to the dungeons of the City of Justice and back to Brians 2 in the first convoy of prisoners heading to the penitentiary.
After the footballer’s new statement, Martell will this week present a new request for freedom in court accompanied by the report of the images from the Sutton’s security cameras.
