Former Spanish soccer president Luis Rubiales will face trial for kissing ahead Jenni Hermoso with out her consent on the Women’s World Cup, an investigative choose mentioned on Thursday.
Judge Francisco de Jorge dominated that his probe factors to Rubiales’ kiss “being unconsented and carried out unilaterally and in a surprising fashion,” the court docket mentioned.
State prosecutors have accused Rubiales of sexual assault and for allegedly coercing Hermoso to publicly help him within the public backlash in opposition to him.
Despite initially claiming he was the sufferer of a marketing campaign led by “false feminists,” Rubiales finally resigned from his submit for his habits through the World Cup awards ceremony in Sydney in August. He has denied any wrongdoing.
The choose additionally dominated that together with Rubiales, former Spain coach Jorge Vilda, sports activities director of Spain’s males’s group Albert Luque, and the federation former head of selling ought to be tried for allegedly pressuring Hermoso to defend Rubiales, a step she refused to take.
The trial date will likely be decided.
Hermoso testified earlier than the investigative choose in January. The 33-year-old ahead, Spain’s all-time main scorer who performs within the Mexican league, has been extensively supported within the nation. The kiss scandal has many hoping it would spur a reckoning with sexism in sports activities.
Based on a sexual consent regulation handed in 2022, Rubiales might face a positive or a jail sentence of 1 to 4 years if discovered responsible, in keeping with the prosecutors’ workplace in Madrid. The new regulation eradicated the distinction between “sexual harassment” and “sexual assault,” sanctioning any unconsented sexual act.
FIFA banned Rubiales for three years till after the boys’s 2026 World Cup. His ban will expire earlier than the subsequent girls’s event in 2027. Spain’s sports activities authority additionally dominated him unfit to carry a submit in sports activities administration for 3 years.
Source web site: www.hindustantimes.com
