Daniel Alves’ defense puts the young man’s testimony in doubt

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The 20-page appeal presented this Monday (30) by the defense of the player Daniel Alves to the Spanish Justice tries to use the images from the cameras of the Sutton Barcelona nightclub —which recorded the moments in which the athlete was with a trio of girls in the VIP area and, later, when she went into the bathroom—to cast doubt on the complainant’s testimony.

Alves, 39, is accused of rape by one of the young women, aged 23, on the night of December 31 last year. The player has been imprisoned since January 20 in the Brians penitentiary center, in the metropolitan area of ​​Barcelona.

The appeal asks that he remain free while investigations continue. The Catalan newspaper El Periódico had access to the document.

In the view of lawyer Cristóbal Martell Pérez-Alcalde, who signed the order, the recordings “radically contradict” the alleged victim’s testimony and indicate a climate of fraternization quite opposite to that of the abusive terror described. In addition, they show that the complainant entered the bathroom alone, and not taken by Alves.

The information provided in the deposition, says Pérez-Alcalde –according to the Catalan newspaper–, “turns out to be inconsistent because it is inaccurate”. The resource describes that the video shows the whistleblower, her cousin and a friend entering the VIP area at 3:20 am.

For 20 minutes, a group of five people can be seen talking “in a playful and festive way, surrounded by a lot of people”, claims the defense document. The site is described as an open space, which “is far from being a scene of intimidation” that case law considers necessary to “break the capacity and self-determination of the victim”.

At 3:42 am, says the resource, it is possible to see Daniel Alves going to the bathroom alone. After two minutes, the young woman, “after spending some time talking with her two friends and a waiter”, goes to the same door through which Alves had passed, the one to the bathroom.

Before the judge, the alleged victim stated that Alves asked her to follow him through a door that led, without her knowledge, to a small bathroom.

The document delivered on Monday points out that the player was already inside the toilet and the girl also enters alone, without Alves “giving her passage or opening the door”. Both remain inside for 16 minutes, out of camera range.

“The images speak for themselves,” writes Pérez-Alcalde. He emphasizes that the woman, in her testimony, “describes how she lived in a climate of terror, dread or domination”, a scenario that, in his opinion, the images “refute”.

The images “fight and come into conflict and contradiction with the description made by the complainant”, says the defense. “That’s where doubt assails us” and “allows us to reasonably question” that his account of what happened in the bathroom can “also be adorned with identical elements of narrative distortion”.

In the appeal, the lawyer also seeks to justify why Alves made erratic statements, first denying that there was sex, and then admitting it. “This finds a natural and rudimentary explanation in the desire to preserve the woman and children from conduct” that is perhaps inappropriate for a sexual relationship.

To ask for the provisional release of the player, the lawyer says that, on January 20, Alves voluntarily went to the police. Secondly, that he is married and has family and business ties in Barcelona.

Finally, it proposes that the player go to court daily to sign his presence, that he hand over his passport, that a precautionary measure be established 500 meters away from the complainant and that he be prohibited from communicating with her in any way. It also offers to post the bail that the court deems appropriate.

In addition to the contradiction of having initially said that he did not know the young woman, Alves has to face some evidence that has been collected by the police, such as the fact that the complainant left the bathroom crying, semen was collected in the bathroom and the tattoo on his groin described by her.

On the day of the facts, a protocol for rapid assistance to victims of sexual assault was activated. The document, developed in 2018 and called “No Callem”, details how private spaces should act. The police were called, listened to the victim and sent her to the Clínic hospital, whose medical report would indicate traits consistent with an assault.

The young woman who accuses Daniel Alves rejected receiving any type of compensation from the player and did not want her identity revealed. According to her lawyer, Ester Garcia López, the woman just wants the athlete arrested.

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