Spanish MP questions Daniel Alves’ sentence reduction

The Spanish Public Ministry will ask for the sentence of former football player Daniel Alves to be extended. He was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison for sexual harassment against a 23-year-old girl in December 2022. The sentence was reduced due to the payment of compensation of €150,000 (about R$804,000) to the victim .

According to the Spanish newspaper The worldthe MP assessed that it was not “adequate” that the possibility of payment was given to the former player. The publication highlighted that the amount of compensation was given by Neymar’s family, since Alves’ accounts are blocked due to a dispute with his ex-wife.

According to the publication, the MP will ask for the cancellation of the call “damage repair mitigation”. The text of the appeal is still being drafted, but it must indicate that the amount cannot be considered compensation for the damage.

Daniel Alves’ defense used the money donated by Neymar’s family to make a deposit in court before the trial. The former player’s lawyers used the amount as one of the arguments during the analysis of the case in court.

At trial, the prosecutor asked for a sentence of 9 years in prison. The victim’s defense spoke of 12 years of detention.

After the sentence was announced, the victim’s lawyer, Ester García, said she should appeal the decision and criticized the fact that the court had determined the “damage repair mitigation” to reduce the sentence.

“We are a little worried that it will be transmitted to society that people who may have better economic capacity may have their sentence reduced if they can contribute a significant amount”, said the lawyer.

“To me, this is a low penalty. In this court, many cases of sexual violence are handled and it is the lowest sentence we have had in more than 20 years”, he stated.

The sentence imposes a 5-year probation sentence, which will be applied as soon as Daniel Alves completes his detention time. Of the 4 and a half years he was sentenced to, he has already served 1 year and 1 month in pre-trial detention. The former player must also stay away from the victim for 9 years.

According to the sentence, the Barcelona Court said it considered it had been proven that the former player “penetrated vaginally” the victim without his consent and with “violence”.

The Court declared that Daniel Alves “He grabbed the complainant, threw her on the floor and, preventing her from moving, penetrated her through the vagina, although the complainant said no, that she wanted to leave”. The judges said they understood that this “complies with the type of lack of consent, with the use of violence and carnal access”.

The former player’s defense based its strategy on an attempt to discredit the victim. According to the sentence, some statements by the victim “are not consistent with the test performed”, but it was considered that, at the heart of his testimony (about what happened in the bathroom), the narrative was “coherent” throughout the research phase.

The decision highlights that, during the victim’s testimony at the trial, no “relevant contradiction”.

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