Ex-wife of Dani Alves says he would ‘never’ sexually assault a woman following arrest in Barcelona

The ex-wife of Brazil international Dani Alves has said she is living a nightmare after his arrest and imprisonment, insisting he would “never” commit the sexual offense he has been accused of.

Alves, 39, has spent the last three nights sleeping in Brians 1 jail near Barcelona after being arrested for an alleged sexual assault at the city’s Sutton nightclub last month.

An alleged victim reportedly accused him of slapping and raping her in a nightclub bathroom.

Court officials who have confirmed that the footballer is under investigation for alleged sexual assault have not specified the exact nature of the allegations.

Dana Dinorah, Alves’ ex-wife, said: ‘I’m still in shock. It seems like it’s a nightmare and it’s not happening.

Insisting that she believed the father of her two children was innocent, the Brazil-based businesswoman said in an interview with a Spanish television show: ‘Dani would never, ever do this.

‘I say this because I have known him for 22 years and I was married to him for ten.

‘This has been a shock to me and my children.

‘I have two teenage sons who are suffering.’

Speaking to the Fiesta program on Spain’s Telecinco station, Dana added: ‘Dani asked his lawyer to call me so that he could solve his most urgent matters.

“I found out he was in jail from that phone call he asked his lawyer to make to me.

“I have not had access to Dani and I have not been able to speak to him on the phone. His lawyer says that he is sad but that he is fine. She is the only one who has been able to see it.

I am here for whatever I can do to help you.

Brians 1 prison, near Barcelona, ​​where former Barcelona footballer Dani Alves is being held

Dani Alves (left) in 2021 with his wife Joana Sanz (right), who recently spoke about her husband’s arrest.

Dana spoke after the footballer’s current wife, Spanish model Joana Sanz, said she had lost the “two pillars of my life” after her husband’s imprisonment and the death of her mother.

The former Barcelona defender, sacked by Mexican club UNAM Pumas after it emerged he had been remanded by a judge over sexual assault allegations, was arrested after flying to Spain last week following the death of his mother-in-law.

It was initially claimed that Alves, who became the oldest Brazilian to play in a FIFA World Cup last month, had been accused of reaching into a woman’s underwear in a nightclub bathroom earlier before the allegation of rape arose.

Spanish media reported overnight that the footballer had asked his defense lawyer for permission to be questioned again under oath by the judge who sent him to prison pending an ongoing investigation so that he could clarify the reported inconsistencies in the statements he has made. made in and out of court about the above allegations. and after his arrest.

He told a television show before his arrest that he had never met his accuser, though he admitted to having been at the nightclub where the alleged incident occurred.

Spanish media reports over the weekend, which police and court officials have not commented on, claim that he told the judge he had “consensual sex” with the woman after witnesses were told and CCTV footage contradicted his television claims that he had not met his alleged victim. .

Former Barcelona right-back Dani Alves (D), 39, pictured with his wife Joana Sanz (L), 29

Dani Alves moved to Mexican league team UNAM Pumas after a year back in Barcelona

Joana Sanz, born in Tenerife, had already shown that she was supporting her man before his arrest and imprisonment, saying on social media that her husband had never disrespected her and claiming that she had seen women ‘try it on’ with Alves in front of to the. hers.

Hours before he was taken into custody, she posted a photo of them holding hands with the caption “Together” in English.

On Friday night, Joana, who married Alves on Formentera off Ibiza in 2017, wrote: “I ask the media outside my home to respect my privacy at this time.”

‘My mother died a week ago and I have only just begun to realize that she is no longer with me to be tormented with my husband’s situation.

I have lost the only two pillars of my life.

Alves was fired from his contract with the Pumas de la UNAM after returning from a spell at Barcelona

Alves is expected to remain at Brians 1 for at least the next few weeks until his lawyer can persuade the judges there is no flight risk and he should be released after posting bail.

Investigations of the type currently carried out by the investigating magistrate can take months and even years in some cases to complete, although when suspects are in prison they speed up their investigations as much as possible.

People under formal investigation can remain in prison without charge for up to four years in Spain, although the normal limit is two years.

In Spain, formal charges are only filed when an investigating judge rules that there is sufficient evidence for a trial to proceed and subsequently invites prosecutors to file an indictment.

Both the state prosecutor in this case and a lawyer representing Alves’s accuser demanded the footballer’s preventive detention during a closed-door court hearing on Friday that followed his arrest at an undisclosed location in Barcelona.