Wednesday, March 27, 2024 – Spanish prosecutors have announced they are seeking a two-and-a-half-year prison sentence for the country's former FA chief Luis Rubiales over the last Women's World Cup 'kiss gate' scandal.
The prosecutors also want him to pay Jenni Hermoso
€100,000 (£85,000) in compensation if he is convicted at trial.
They laid out their pre-trial demands in a six-page
indictment made public on Wednesday.
They said they were seeking a one-year jail term for a
sexual assault charge and a separate one-year six-month prison sentence for
coercion linked to his alleged attempts to get Jenni to speak out in his
defence over the 'unwanted' kiss he gave the Women's World
Cup winner last summer.
Madrid-based judge Francisco de Jorge paved the way
for Rubiales to be tried earlier this year after recommending he be
put in the dock.
He said his long-running probe had uncovered 'solid
evidence' pointing to the potential illegality of the kiss.
Mr De Jorge, who has already quizzed the former football
boss and his alleged victim separately in closed sessions at Spain's
centralised Audiencia Nacional court, said in a five-page ruling made public in
January: 'The investigation has revealed the existence of solid evidence the
kiss Luis Manuel Rubiales Bejar gave the player Jennifer Hermoso was not
consensual and was a unilateral and surprise initiative on his part.
'Whether there was no any erotic intention or it was a
result of the state of euphoria and excitement experienced as a consequence of
the extraordinary sporting triumph preceding it is something that should be
valued in a public trial.'
He said he had concluded Hermoso had been left 'bewildered
and surprised' by the 'unexpected' kiss and 'didn't have time to react' after
Rubiales grabbed her by the head with both hands and locked lips with her at
the awards ceremony in front of millions of TV viewers watching live last
August.
He accused Rubiales of pressuring Jenni to publicly support
him on the plane back from Sydney in Australia where the Spain team won last
August's final against the England women's team before asking Vilda to speak to
her brother and try to convince her to record a video saying the kiss was
consensual.
He went on to detail how his investigation had discovered
evidence pointing to Vilda subsequently telling the footballer's sibling her
failure to assist with the video would have 'negative consequences' for her.
Mr De Jorge also outlined how Ruben Rivera asked Jenni again
to participate in a video 'exonerating' Rubiales when they got back to Spain as
part of repeated attempts to get her to speak out about the kiss in a way that
was beneficial to the divorced father-of-three.
And he accused Albert Luque of turning up unannounced at a
hotel Jennifer was in to convince her to participate in the video despite her
rejecting Rivera's requests to talk to him about backing Rubiales publicly.
He concluded in his bombshell ruling: 'The pressure the
player was submitted to created in Jennifer Hermoso a situation of anxiety and
intense stress.'
Public prosecutors said on Tuesday they were seeking prison
sentences of one year and six months for Vilda, Luque and Rivera if convicted
of coercion.
Hermoso, 33, who plays her club football now for Mexican
side Tigres, sparked the Audiencia Nacional investigation by filing a complaint
against 46-year-old Rubiales last September.
She accused him of kissing her without consent after the
Women's World Cup final finished and described it as a sexist act which left
her feeling vulnerable.
Rubiales has insisted it was consensual and described it as
a peck.
Mr De Jorge banned him from going within 200 metres of
Hermoso or making any contact with her as part of a restraining order after
questioning him in court a week after the player lodged her complaint.
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