2024-03-27 15:31:11
In Spain, the Prosecutor’s Office requested this Wednesday a sentence of 2.5 years in prison for the former president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales for the forced kiss he gave to the player Jenni Hermoso in the World Cup final in Australia.
First modification: 03/27/2024 – 16:31
2 min
Luis Rubiales is accused of a crime of sexual assault, for the kiss itself, and another of coercion, for having pressured the athlete to “justify and approve the kiss that against her will” she had received, according to the Prosecutor’s Office in His writing.
The Prosecutor’s Office also requested against Rubiales, who will be tried on a date yet to be defined, 2 years of supervised freedom once he completes the prison sentence, a ban on communicating or approaching Hermoso for 4 years and compensating the player with 50,000 euros (54,000 Dollars).
On August 20, 2023, in the middle of the medal ceremony for the World Cup in Australia, won by Spain, Rubiales “held Hermoso’s head” with both hands, and in a surprising manner and without the player’s consent or acceptance, he gave a kiss on the lips,” the Prosecutor’s Office reported in its brief.
“Given the personal and professional consequences that could arise,” Rubiales exerted “constant and repeated acts of pressure” on Hermoso, which prevented the latter from “developing her life in peace, tranquility and freely,” he continued.
For having also participated in the coercion, the Prosecutor’s Office requests a year and six months in prison for the former women’s coach Jorge Vilda, the sports director of the men’s team Albert Luque and the former marketing manager of the RFEF Rubén Rivera.
Due to the coercion, Rubiales and the other three defendants will have to compensate Hermoso with another 50,000 euros together.
“A moment of happiness”
Since a recent reform of the Spanish Penal Code, a non-consensual kiss can be considered sexual assault, a criminal category that groups together all types of sexual violence.
“It was not intentional. There was no sexual connotation of any kind, it was just a moment of happiness, the great joy of the moment,” Rubiales, 46, tried to defend himself in an interview with the British television program Piers Morgan Uncensored last year. .
Hermoso, who filed the complaint against Rubiales in September, stated last January, when declaring before a judge of the National Court, a high Madrid jurisdiction, that the kiss was “unexpected” and “at no time consensual,” according to sources reported at the time. judicial.
The player also stated that she suffered “constant harassment” from Rubiales and her entourage in the following days, according to the same source.
The judge had also heard Rubiales last September, who defended before the magistrate that the kiss had been consensual.
Rubiales initially refused to resign due to his actions at a controversial RFEF assembly on August 25, but in the following days, pressure grew from the government, the justice system and the world of football itself until on August 10 September he presented his resignation.
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