Spain’s former soccer chief Luis Rubiales will go on trial in Madrid on Monday over the unsolicited kiss he planted on the World Cup winner Jenni Hermoso, a gesture that shocked hundreds of thousands of TV viewers and unleashed a backlash towards sexism in sport.
Rubiales, 47, is accused of sexual assault in addition to coercion after allegations that he tried to pressure Hermoso, 34, into publicly declaring that the kiss, which occurred as she celebrated her group’s victory within the 2023 World Cup in Australia, was consensual.
Rubiales, who ultimately resigned as president of the Spanish soccer federation (RFEF) after initially describing the encounter as a “consensual peck”, denies the costs.
Spanish prosecutors are looking for a jail time period of two and a half years, though in Spain those that obtain sentences of lower than two years can often keep away from jail by paying damages so long as they don’t have any earlier convictions.
Hermoso, Spain’s all-time prime scorer who performs for Tigres in Mexico, will take the stand at Madrid’s excessive court docket on Monday.
The outrage and protests over the incident overshadowed the ladies’s victory whereas galvanising a #MeToo motion in Spanish soccer and triggering a broader debate over sexism in Spanish society.
Additionally on trial for his or her suspected roles in placing stress on Hermoso are the previous head coach of the ladies’s nationwide group Jorge Vilda, the previous RFEF sporting director Albert Luque and the federation’s former advertising chief Rubén Rivera.
Rubiales and his co-defendants will testify on or after 12 February as soon as the court docket has interviewed the remainder of the witnesses.
Spain’s excessive court docket concluded final yr that there was sufficient proof for a trial, ruling that the kiss “was not consensual and was a unilateral and sudden transfer”.
Rubiales clutched his crotch on the ultimate whistle of the victory towards England on 20 August 2023 whereas standing close to Spain’s Queen Letizia and her daughter Infanta Sofía.
In the course of the medal presentation, he lifted Hermoso off her ft then grabbed her by the pinnacle and appeared to tug her towards him to kiss her on the lips in entrance of a packed stadium and a world TV viewers. A video of the incident swiftly went viral.
Hermoso’s first response, based on changing-room footage, was to inform teammates: “Hey, I didn’t prefer it.”
In a later assertion, she mentioned the incident had left her feeling “weak and a sufferer of aggression”. She described the kiss as an “impulsive act, sexist, misplaced and with none kind of consent from my half”.
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Amid the uproar, Rubiales dismissed critics of the kiss as “idiots and silly folks”, earlier than providing an apology broadly seen as half-hearted. He mentioned the kiss was “with out unhealthy religion at a time of most effusiveness” and has forged himself as a sufferer of a marketing campaign by “false feminists”.
Prosecutors will argue that Rubiales coerced Hermoso after pulling her apart on the bus to the airport and asking her to approve an announcement downplaying the incident, which she refused to do.
Vilda is then alleged to have approached Hermoso’s brother, Rafael, on the flight again to Madrid and warned him her profession would endure until she agreed to file a video supporting Rubiales’ declare that the kiss was consensual.
Rubiales has referred to as on his daughters to testify, whereas a number of of Hermoso’s teammates can even present proof.
Amid the protests triggered by the incident, Rubiales’ mom, Ángeles Béjar, was admitted to hospital for a number of days after locking herself in a church and happening starvation strike in help of her son, protesting towards the “inhumane and bloodthirsty” persecution towards him.
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