DANI ALVES FACES TRIAL FOR ALLEGED RAPE IN FEBRUARY

“I don’t know who this lady is. How could I do that to a woman? No.”

Alves told La Vanguardia that he had lied at first because he was afraid his wife would leave him if he admitted he had been with another woman.

The high-profile trial will take place in Barcelona, the court that has led the investigation into the affair said in a statement.

Prosecutors allege Alves invited the woman to enter a small enclosure at the upscale Sutton nightclub, which she says she did not know was a lavatory.

Once inside, the footballer showed a “violent attitude” towards the woman, whom he forced to have intercourse despite her resistance, prosecutors say according to the indictment.

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.

At the time of the incident, Alves was on holiday in Barcelona after playing for Brazil at the World Cup in Qatar.