Former FC Barcelona footballer Dani Alves, jailed provisionally and accused of sexual assault on a 23-year-old woman on the second-to-last night of 2022, will on Monday be brought from Brians 2 prison, outside Barcelona, to the city's court number 15, where the case is being investigated. The Brazilian has an appointment before the judge at half past eleven and he wants to talk. The ex-footballer himself, through his lawyer, Cristóbal Martell, has communicated that he intends to give a further explanation of the case that is being investigated; the judge accepted this and accordingly summoned him and all of the parties for Monday, April 17th, in Barcelona's Ciutat de la Justicia courts complex.
The investigative phase of the case is almost complete. The Barcelona Audience court already explained this on February 22nd when it refused to allow Dani Alves to be bailed, while also assuring that the maximum two-year period of provisional prison will not be required, since, due to the work done by the Mossos d'Esquadra police in the inquiry phase, the process is moving forward quickly. Alves's statement, the precise words that he will say to the judge, has not emerged; no one, beyond his legal team, knows what the ex-footballer wants to say to the judge.
It's unlikely to be inconsequential
However, it won't be something insignificant. Although the court procedure allows the accused person to appear as many times as they want before the investigating judge and that their most recent statement always prevails, all are aware that any variation in the version given by Dani Alves about the facts of what happened complicates his credibility. The Brazilian, who has been behind bars since January, when he returned from Mexico and was arrested by the Mossos police, has already changed his version several times, almost always when trapped by the new evidence that the police kept putting on the table.
What he will say on Monday is unknown. Surely the request to declare, however, is not a whim. Cristóbal Martell is one of the best criminal lawyers in the city of Barcelona, and one of his skills is getting good deals for his clients. The statement that Alves will make in front of the judge on Monday seems likely to be conceived in these terms: that is, it will lay the groundwork so that, in the event that he is finally convicted of a serious crime such as sexual assault, a good agreement can be reached with the court that will end up judging him - which will not be the investigating court that will receive him on Monday.
The appointment with the judge, then, will be at 11:30am. Before that, a Mossos d'Esquadra vehicle will transport him, in line the usual practice for inmates who have to appear in court, from Brians 2 to the Ciutat de la Justícia in Barcelona, where he will wait in the cells, until required by the judge. When he finishes his statement, which will be behind closed doors, he will be taken back to Brians prison about 30km away. Whatever he says, it is very unlikely that the Brazilian will be released on Monday.
The trial, not far away
If the former Barça star does change his statement, it will be the umpteenth time that Alves has offered new details about the events at the uptown Sutton nightclub on the night of December 30th, 2022, when he allegedly sexually assaulted a 23-year-old woman in the toilets of the club's VIP area. In any case, his words will probably be among the last of the testimonies to be heard, with the judge preparing to close the investigation and to ask the parties to make their final statements at this stage in order to be able to send the case to trial.