The situation is not getting better for Daniel Alves, suspected of “sexual assault” of a young woman in a Barcelona nightclub three weeks ago. A Spanish judge has just ordered the provisional detention of the 39-year-old Brazilian international on Friday. The former Barça and PSG player categorically denies the facts. “Barcelona’s Court of Instruction No. 15 today heard footballer Daniel Alves, accused by a woman of an alleged offense of sexual assault for facts that allegedly took place in a Barcelona nightclub in December,” said Friday the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia in a brief statement.
“The magistrate decided to remand” the player, as the prosecution had requested earlier, added the body. A few hours later the Mexican club Pumas announced that it had terminated the contract of Daniel Alves. “With this decision, the club reiterates its commitment not to tolerate any act by any member of our institution, whoever it may be, to undermine the university spirit and its values”, detailed the club president of the club. National University of Mexico (UNAM), Leopoldo Silva.
The facts allegedly occurred in a nightclub in Barcelona
According to a source close to the case, the young woman accuses the Brazilian player of “rape”, a criminal qualification that is part of sexual assault in the Spanish criminal code. The young woman reiterated her accusations on Friday before the magistrate, according to this source. The facts would have taken place in the toilets of a fashionable nightclub in Barcelona on the night of December 30 to 31, according to the media.
Summoned to a Barcelona police station on Friday morning, Daniel Alves had been “taken into custody” before being transferred to the Barcelona court to be brought before this judge, as indicated by the Catalan regional police. The court had announced the opening of an investigation for sexual assault on January 10, after the filing of a complaint by the young woman eight days earlier. According to the source familiar with the matter, the provisional detention of the right side was decided because of the risk of “leaking” concerning him, and the absence of an extradition treaty between Brazil and Spain.
His wife Joana Sanz defended him
In a video message transmitted to the Spanish channel Antena 3 and broadcast on January 5, the player categorically denied the facts. “First of all, I would like to deny it. I was there, in this place, I spent a good evening with other people, but without invading the space of others, he had affirmed. I don’t know who this young woman is, I don’t know her. »
“On December 30, he went to dinner with his friends, to disconnect a little, he really needed it. He went out dancing and enjoying the music as he knows how. And that’s all. He did nothing wrong,” said his Spanish wife, Joana Sanz, in an interview broadcast on January 9 on the same channel, describing this information as “without head or tail”. The most successful footballer in the world with his 43 trophies, Daniel Alves had spent a few days of vacation in Barcelona at the end of December, after participating in the World Cup in Qatar with the Seleçao, before returning to his current club Pumas de Mexico.