Ex-Barcelona player Dani Alves jailed for sexual assault

Catalonia's top court on Thursday found former Brazil footballer Dani Alves guilty of sexually assaulting a woman in a Barcelona nightclub in 2022, sentencing him to four and a half years in prison, Report informs via ESPN.

The court also ordered that Alves pay 150,000 euros to the victim.

"The sentence considers that it has been proven that the victim did not consent and that there is evidence, in addition to the testimony of the plaintiff, to consider the rape proven," the court said in a statement.

Alves had maintained the sex was consensual. The prosecutor was seeking a nine-year prison term.

Alves, 40, was first arrested in January 2023 after being accused of sexually assaulting a woman in the bathroom of an upscale Barcelona nightclub in the early hours of December 31, 2022.

He had remained in preventive pre-trial prison in Spain ever since, with a judge turning down regular requests for bail and deeming him a flight risk.