Fifteen days after the end of the first Mendy trial, the name of another international footballer burst into the legal chronicles. Brazilian Dani Alves, suspected of sexually assaulting a young woman in a Barcelona nightclub at the end of December 2022, was remanded in custody almost a week ago. The Brazilian, who faces up to 12 years in prison, denies the charges against him, but an anti-aggression protocol activated by the nightclub that evening came to support the dice? Should France follow the example of Spanish justice, considered a pioneer in the fight against sexual violence? 20 minutes answers these questions with the analysis of Fabienne El Khoury, spokesperson for Osez le féminisme.
What has happened ?
According to Spanish media, the facts took place on the night of December 30 to 31, 2022 at the Sutton, a trendy nightclub in Barcelona, while the player was spending a few days on vacation in Catalonia after playing in the World Cup. A 23-year-old woman accuses the former PSG player of rape, a criminal qualification that is part of sexual assault in the Spanish Penal Code, as specified by AFP.
According to El Mundo, which transcribes the testimony of the victim, the side would have forced the young woman to give him a blowjob in the toilets of a VIP lounge of the nightclub. Then he would have penetrated the young woman and ejaculated, without protection. For all these facts, the young woman, evacuated from the discotheque by ambulance according to his lawyer, filed a complaint in early January. In particular, she was able to clearly identify an intimate tattoo of the Brazilian footballer, as reported RMC.
“She told me: I don’t want compensation, I want prison,” reported the plaintiff’s lawyer. Alves, the most successful footballer in the world, denies the facts. “I don’t know who this young woman is, I don’t know her,” he said in a statement broadcast to television channels.
Three weeks after the events, the footballer was summoned to the Barcelona police station and then placed in police custody for “alleged offense of sexual assault”.
What is the “No Callem”, an anti-aggression protocol that allowed the arrest of Alves?
The profusion of elements available to the investigators was made possible thanks to the activation of a specific device in Barcelona. Set up in 2018 by the town hall, the “No Callem”, which means “We are not silent”, is a protocol which makes it possible to fight against sexual violence in public places.
Concretely, the protocol allows the training of the staff of the night establishments to adopt the good reflexes when an attack is committed, as recalled by RFI. After an attack, the victim is isolated, reassured, and the staff must notify the emergency services. Then the evidence must be preserved.
In the Alves case, the employees of the Sutton prevented access to the VIP toilets, the alleged place of the attack, and they handed over the video surveillance tapes to the police.
Thanks to the images, the version of the victim was deemed credible, and made it possible to confront the statements of the Brazilian, who changed his version several times, before acknowledging that he spent time in the toilet with the young woman.
The protocol also provides for the alleged assailant to be detained until the arrival of the police. In the Alves case, the footballer had already left when the system was triggered.
“The most important thing is to have staff and security guards who are trained in sexual violence, who believe the victim and don’t make mistakes immediately after the attack. If the victim consents, there may then be a medical examination, the analysis of his clothes, the taking of DNA by the investigators and the medical staff”, underlines Fabienne El Khoury, spokesperson for the association Osez le feminism.
This device, which only exists in Barcelona, is in force in 25 nightclubs, and in 39 public places, according to the city website.
Can we do the same in France?
In France, the #balancetonbar hashtag, which emerged in 2021, identified testimonies from victims who were allegedly drugged in bars without their knowledge. Complaints have been filed and an investigation opened, as announced at the time by the Paris prosecutor to Release.
Like other major European cities, Strasbourg and Marseille take part in the SHINE programme. Funded by the EU, it aims to prevent sexual harassment in festive places.
But our expert calls for a global state will, with investment and human resources. “In the fight against gender-based violence, Spain tackled the problem in 2004, with a cross-party law. Since then, nearly 300 measures have been put in place. The protective order, for example, is 12 times more requested and granted in Spain. We ask for whatever it takes on gender-based violence”.
For the sole subject of domestic violence, Spain spends around 16 euros per inhabitant and per year for the fight against domestic violence, revealed the Hubertine Auclert center in a comparative reportpublished in 2020. On the same subject, France spends 5 euros per inhabitant.
Better, a Spanish “State pact” granted a budget of one billion on violence against women from 2018 to 2022. Regardless of the government in power, the sum had to be paid, as recalled The Parisian.
And the creation of a specialized court to intra-family violence”, which was voted by the National Assembly, will not settle the backlog accumulated by France. “We need more means, more human resources too. A specialized court without trained staff or enough judges is ineffective”, specifies Fabienne El Khoury.