The Alves Case has come to an end. The Brazilian footballer has been sentenced to four years and six months in prison for a crime of sexual assault to a young woman that occurred at the Sutton nightclub in Barcelona during the night of December 30 to 31, 2022. The sentencing order states that The accused abruptly grabbed the complainant, threw her to the ground and, preventing her from moving, penetrated her vaginally, even though the complainant said no, she wanted to leave..
This prison sentence has benefited from a mitigating circumstance that Ins Guardiola and his team of lawyers have taken advantage of to prevent their client from having a longer sentence. It is about repairing the damagea legal figure that allows the criminal liability of an accused to be reduced by compensating the damages caused to the victim, as stated in Criminal Law. This scenario highlights the relevant measures taken by the accused to reduce or compensate for the negative effects of the crime he committed.
The repair of the damage in the Alves Case has been carried out thanks to the payment of compensation of 150,000 euros for moral and psychological damage, which he carried out before the trial took place regardless of whether there was a conviction or not. ANDThis has been decisive in the fact that the footballer has received a much lower prison sentence than expected. Prior to the trial, the defense has deposited 150,000 euros into the Court’s account to deliver to the victim, without any type of condition. The fact of having paid this amount of money before knowing the sentence expresses a reparatory desire that must be considered as a mitigating circumstance.
César Lage’s opinion
Csar locationan expert lawyer, has attended Diario AS to evaluate said sentence, which is based on the article 179.1 of the Penal Codewhich is punishable by four to twelve years in prison. The lawyer points out that the mitigating factor of one year’s reparation, contemplated in article 21.5, has been vital for the application of a lower penalty than expected.. The sentence is applied in its lower half, which is three to six years, with which the court applies four and a half years in prison for the mitigating circumstance of article 21.5, which speaks of reparation for the damage caused to the victim, it states. to this newspaper.
A mitigating circumstance that is repaired precisely with the payment of that compensation of 150,000 euros that the victim did not want, but which the court established as civil liability.. Lage says that the Provincial Court of Barcelona reaches this sentence through the assessment of the victim, which they consider is sufficient for the conviction as there is sufficient peripheral corroboration that gives rise to the veracity of the victim’s statement.
The lawyer assures that the footballer never receive provisional release due to his high risk of fleeing to Brazila country that does not have an extradition agreement with Spain.
