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Footballer Dani Alves to testify as his rape trial in Spain wraps up

The rape trial of ex-Brazil international Dani Alves ends Wednesday with the footballer due to tell the court his version of events involving a young woman at a Barcelona nightclub.

Footballer Dani Alves to testify as his rape trial in Spain wraps up
Brazilian footballer Dani Alves looks on at the start of his trial at the High Court of Justice of Catalonia in Barcelona, on February 5, 2024.(Photo by Jordi BORRAS / POOL / AFP)

The third and final day of the trial will begin at 1400 GMT, with the 40-year-old Brazilian to take the stand last after testimony from several experts.

The trial opened on Monday with the victim testifying for over an hour from behind a screen to avoid her being identified.

One of the world’s most decorated footballers who played for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain during a storied career, Alves is accused of raping the woman in the bathroom of the VIP section of the Sutton nightclub in the early hours of December 31, 2022.

The defender was arrested three weeks later and has been detained ever since. He denies all the charges.

Some 20 witnesses took the stand on Tuesday, with the Brazilian friend who was with him on the night in question saying Alves had drunk a lot of alcohol before entering the nightclub.

Various police officers told the court about the victim’s state of agitation and “shock” when they arrived at the nightclub, as well as her anxiety that “nobody would believe her” if she filed a complaint.

On Monday, a friend and a cousin, who were with the victim at the nightclub, had also testified about her anguished state after fleeing the bathroom.

Alves was present in court on both days, appearing in court handcuffed to a police officer and sitting silently in the front row.

Prosecutors say Alves and his friend bought champagne for the three young women, then he asked the victim to go with him to another area where there was a bathroom which she was unaware of.

Once inside, he became violent and forced her to have sex, despite the fact she “repeatedly asked him to let her go” causing her “anguish and terror”, according to prosecutors.

The friend who was with her broke down in tears on Tuesday as she told the court how the victim was “crying uncontrollably” after leaving the bathroom, saying Alves had “really hurt” her.

The footballer, who is accused of “sexual assault with penetration”, has insisted what happened between them was consensual.

Prosecutors are calling for a nine-year jail sentence followed by 10 years of probation and also want him to pay 150,000 euros ($162,000) in compensation.

Alves’s 31-year-old wife Joana Sanz told the court on Tuesday he appeared very drunk when he got back to their Barcelona home that night and she had not wanted to talk to him because of “the state he was in”.

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CRIME

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel’s crystal meth

Spanish police said Thursday they had seized 1,800 kilos of crystal meth that Mexico's Sinaloa Cartel was trying to sell in Europe, the country's "biggest-ever seizure" of the narcotic.

Spain seizes 1.8 tonnes of Sinaloa Cartel's crystal meth

Police arrested five people during the raid in the eastern Alicante province, one of them a Mexican running the cartel’s Spanish operation, a statement said.

“This is the biggest-ever seizure of crystal meth in Spain and the second largest in Europe,” Antonio Martinez Duarte, head of the police’s drug trafficking and organised crime unit, told reporters.

“Among those arrested is a Mexican citizen linked to the Sinaloa Cartel,” he added.

READ ALSO: What are the penalties for drug possession in Spain?

He did not give his name but indicated the suspect was responsible for receiving the narcotics in Spain then distributing them within Europe.

The Sinaloa Cartel is one of Mexico’s oldest, largest and most violent criminal groups whose influence remains strong despite the arrest of its founder Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman and his son.

Both have been extradited to and jailed in the United States.

During the operation, police also detained three Spaniards and a Romanian, seizing five cars, documents, a weapon and cash.

But police believe it was a one-off trafficking operation and that “Mexican organisations are not permanently based” in Spain, Martinez Duarte said.

“These organisations send a trusted person who carries out the operation in line with their interests” and once that is over, he goes back home, he explained.

The seized narcotics had been due to be shipped to central Europe.

Although Spain is one of the main drug gateways to Europe, seizures of synthetic narcotics are uncommon as most traffickers usually deal in cannabis and cocaine.

READ ALSO: Why is Spain’s Europe’s cocaine gateway?

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