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Sam Marsden, Barcelona correspondent
Former Brazil international Dani Alves has claimed for the first time that he was drunk on the night he is accused of committing sexual assault, judicial sources have confirmed to the news agency EFE.
If accepted as a mitigating factor when the case goes to court in February, it could lead to a reduced sentence in the case of a conviction.
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Alves’ lawyer, Inés Guardiola, has argued that the level of Alves’ intoxication impaired his cognitive ability and left him unaware of his actions.
It is the fifth time Alves has changed his story since he was arrested last January for allegedly sexually assaulting a woman in a nightclub in Barcelona on Dec. 30, 2022.
At first, he maintained he did not know the victim. He later said he had met the girl in the bathroom of the club but that nothing happened.
The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain defender, when confronted with biological evidence, changed his version of events again, saying she had consensually performed oral sex on him.
Last April, following the results of further biological tests, Alves admitted for the first time that he had sex with the alleged victim, claiming it was consensual and that he had lied to hide his infidelity to his wife.
Alves, 40, has been in preventative prison without bail since his arrest one year ago. His contract with Liga MX club Pumas UNAM, the club he joined after leaving Barça in June 2022, was terminated after he was detained.
He will stand trial from Feb. 5-7 at a court in Barcelona.
State prosecutors are seeking a nine-year prison sentence. The lawyers representing the alleged victim want him to spend 12 years behind bars. They also seek restraining orders for Alves following the jail term and for him to pay damages worth €150,000 ($163,605) to the woman.
Under Spain’s sexual consent law passed last year, the charge of sexual assault takes in a wide array of crimes from online abuse and groping to rape, each with different possible punishments. A case of rape can carry a maximum sentence of 15 years.