The Prosecutor's Office – as was made public yesterday – requests two and a half years in prison for Luis Rubiales, for crimes of sexual assault and coercion, for his kiss with Jenni Hermoso after the World Cup final last August in Sydney (Australia). The lieutenant prosecutor of the National Court, Marta Durántez, also requests a year and a half in prison for former coach Jorge Vilda; the sports director of the men's team of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Albert Luque; and for the head of Marketing of the RFEF Rubén Rivera. All of them are charged with a crime of coercion for the alleged pressure on the international soccer player and her entourage to support Rubiales' version that the kiss was consensual in a public appearance.
In her indictment, the representative of the Public Ministry also requests that she compensate the international soccer player with 50,000 euros for the kiss and another 50,000 for the pressure (the same amount that she asks the rest of the accused to assume jointly) and that she impose supervised release on the former president of the RFEF for two years once he completes his sentence and is prohibited from communicating with Jenni Hermoso and coming within 200 meters of her for four years (three and a half years in the case of the other three accused) .
What did those coercions consist of?
The pressures occurred in four main scenarios: the dressing room, the bus, the return flight and the trip to Ibiza.
Jenni Hermoso stated that she already felt the first pressures in the locker room. “She was in the locker room and they told me that they needed me to come out, that there was a lot of talk about the kiss. I told them: 'I know what it was like and it wasn't good.' She tried to divert the topic a little and she told us that we had a paid trip to Ibiza as many as we wanted. He grabbed me, grabbed my shoulder because I was next to him. There I started to feel uncomfortable and I saw that something more serious was happening. “That what had happened was not normal and it was not normal at any time.”
These pressures and those that followed were ratified by her teammates. The international soccer players Alexia Putellas, Irene Paredes and Misa Rodríguez ratified before the judge of the “Rubiales case” the pressure that Jenni Hermoso would have received from the leadership of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to support Luis Rubiales' version that the kiss with his partner after the World Cup final in Sydney (Australia) on August 20 was consensual.
In their statement before the judge, the players pointed to Luis Rubiales, Jorge Vilda, the director of the national team, Albert Luque; and the Marketing Manager of the Federation, Rubén Rivera, as authors of the pressure on Jenni Hermoso. According to legal sources, the players told Judge Francisco de Jorge that the then president of the Federation “for his daughters” and crying, he asked the Pachuca soccer player to record the controversial video from Doha with him making light of what happened and making it clear that she was not forced to give that kiss.
The pressures on the plane
A fact that had already been revealed by those around the soccer players. that detailed what happened on that return plane.“My position is at stake, do it even if it's for my daughters. I need you to go out with me,” Rubiales said through tears to Jenni Hermoso. “On the flight to Madrid, Rubiales realized the media impact that what had happened and the words of Miquel Iceta were having. Then he approached the player as discreetly as possible to ask her to please help him in this. He told her that her position was at stake and that if she spoke out she would diminish the importance that was being given to this… She asked the environment not to enter,” Espejo Público announced at the time.
Given the player's refusal, Paredes – who was the first to realize the seriousness of what happened -, Putellas and Misa denounced before the judge that the coach of the Spanish team, Jorge Vilda tried to pressure Jenni's family to “convince her to do the right thing” but was also unsuccessful.
The pressure continued later in Ibiza. Albert Luque – director of the men's soccer team – and Rubén Rivera – marketing director – were the last to try to get the player to mediate the incident with a public statement that would tone down the controversy. And for this they moved to the island. “In Ibiza they continue with the coercion, I tell my agency to do whatever it takes to leave me alone. They continue to insist. Then with family, friends… Already in Spain they held a meeting and everything happened. The paparazzi have followed me …”, the forward said sadly in “Planeta Calleja”.
As a result of these pressures, Hermoso's daily life changed radically, according to the soccer player: “Being on the street and having to look behind you to see if someone is chasing you… I had to leave Madrid, I'm going to Malaga. I had to flee when I hadn't done anything.”
But the footballers' complaints did not stop there and, in this scenario of coercion and threats, they accused the RFEF of manipulating evidence. In this sense, the world champions They spoke about the video in which you can see part of the celebration on the bus after the Championship. The players have said that It was disseminated and at no time did they say that Hermoso had consented to it.
A “cut” and “edited” video
A fact that was already forcefully denounced by Vero Boquete in “Der Spiegel”. In the interview, Boquete assured that, in the midst of the controversy over Rubiales' kiss with Jennifer Hermoso, the latter's mobile phone was 'hacked' looking for things to compromise her and to exonerate Rubiales. “This is war. We knew there were no rules. Jenni's cell phone was hacked. They had access to photos and videos. Then the things that could be used to attack the victim were leaked,” Boquete said when questioned about images showing players joking about the episode on the bus. The player was thus referring to the controversial video published by Alvise Pérez – who will conduct the only interview in Spain with Luis Rubiales – and which, According to what they denounce, it was “cut” and “edited.”
“On the bus there are also other moments when the players say that this is something very serious that cannot be tolerated. “As FIFA had prohibited Rubiales from contacting Jenni, he then looked for other avenues,” he added.
Now, all those accused will have to face the “constant and repeated acts of pressure” directly on Hermoso “and through his family and friends” to get – according to the Prosecutor's Office – that he “publicly justified and approved the kiss that against his will.” Luis Rubiales gave him.” A commitment that generated in the player “a situation of harassment that prevented him from developing his life in peace, tranquility and freely.”