The Prosecutor's Office 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 the international soccer player be compensated with 50,000 euros (the same amount that she asks the rest of the accused to assume jointly) and that supervised release be imposed 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 defendants). In addition, the prosecutor demands that he be disqualified from exercising his profession and from exercising the right to passive suffrage for a period equal to the sentence.
Rubiales is currently in the Dominican Republic and, once he returns to Spain on April 6, he will have to testify as being investigated within the framework of the “RFEF case” for alleged corruption in federation contracts.
In a “surprise” and “without consent” manner
In the qualification document, the prosecutor in the case points out that in the presentation of trophies after the World Cup won by Spain, the then top leader of Spanish football “held the player's head with both hands, at the height of her ears,” and “surprisingly and without the player's consent or acceptance, he kissed her on the lips.”
Given the “personal and professional” consequences that what happened could bring him, Rubiales, “by himself and in connivance with the rest of the accused” – who as positions of his trust, he points out, his “privileged situation” in the RFEF depended “depending on the fate” of its president – carried out “constant and repeated acts of pressure” directly on Hermoso “and through his family and friends” to get – emphasizes the Prosecutor's Office – that he “publicly justified and approved the kiss that against his will was given to him by Luis Rubiales”. A commitment that generated in the player “a situation of harassment that prevented her from developing her life in peace, tranquility and freely.”
The prosecutor details these alleged acts of harassment, which began when Rubiales directly asked the international to make a public statement “about her acceptance of the kiss received, with which she did not agree and that she had no obligation.” of doing”.
Later, the story of the public accusation continues, on the Spanish delegation's bus trip to the airport, “he was forced to get off hastily” to sign a press release written by order of Rubiales “whose content he did not share.” despite which “it was sent to the media.”
The soccer player asked to be “left alone”
Already on the plane, the then president of the RFEF addressed Jenni Hermoso again, insisting that she agree to hold a joint demonstration in Doha (Qatar), where the plane was stopping, “to which the player once refused.” more, expressing their “fatigue and discomfort” due to the “pressures”.
Faced with this new refusal, Rubiales, after various conversations with his trusted team, which included coach Jorge Vilda, chose to redouble the pressure through the player's relatives.
Vilda – the prosecutor claims – then tried with Rafael Hermoso, the soccer player's brother, warning him in the face of his reluctance that if he did not agree, “it would have negative consequences for her, both personally and in her professional career.”
Already during the trip to Ibiza of the world champions, from August 22 to 25, it was Rubén Rivera, Marketing Director of the RFEF, who “persistently” insisted Jenni Hermoso to speak by phone with the person in charge of Integrity of the Federation, which had opened a file that sought, by order of Rubiales, his “exculpation of any responsibility”, even forcing him to change statements about what happened and providing “partial experts in his favor.” The player, according to the Prosecutor's Office, insisted on her refusal and begged Rivera – who extended her “harassment” to Ana Ecube, a friend of Jennifer Hermoso – to “leave her alone.”
Not achieving his goal, Albert Luque went to Ibiza to convince Hermoso, although she refused to talk to him. After failing in his attempt, he angrily sent a message to Hermoso's friend “alluding to the fact that the player, due to her age, had two years left in her career and that if he helped her at this time he could surely get her a position in the team.” Federation”, accusing the footballer of being a “bad person” and wishing her “that she finds herself very alone in life”, for which she “would be happy”.
This situation of harassment stopped when Rubiales was dismissed by FIFA on August 26, but the pressure received caused Jenni Hermoso “a situation of anxiety and intense stress, which lasted for several months.”