The judge of the National Court investigating the alleged coercion of the national team player Jenni Hermoso as a result of the kiss given to her by the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales, will take a statement from the footballer on November 28 starting at 12:30 p.m.
The head of the Central Court of Instruction Number 1, Francisco de Jorge, will listen to the soccer player as a witness in person. His statement is part of the case in which the instructor is investigating Rubiales for alleged crimes of sexual assault and coercion for the kiss he gave her during the victory celebration at the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand.
Hermoso’s summons is the only procedure set at this time after the magistrate agreed to suspend the confrontation between Ana Belén Ecube, the player’s friend who has already testified as a witness, and the marketing director of the RFEF, Rubén Rivera, who He appeared under investigation for possible coercion of the soccer player.
It should be remembered that Hermoso testified before the lieutenant prosecutor of the National Court, Marta Durantez, before proceedings were initiated. Then, the player defended that she did not feel respected. “They were subjecting me to something that I never sought or did to find myself in that situation,” she revealed.
In the statement before the Prosecutor’s Office, revealed by Telecinco, the soccer player narrated the moment in which she received the kiss after Spain won the World Cup. According to her story, she hugged Rubiales and stated: “The one we have mixed up.” After her, the former president of the RFEF jumped on her and commented: “We won this World Cup thanks to you.”
“The next thing was his hands on my head and then I didn’t hear anything else. I saw myself with the kiss on the mouth and I immediately went down to the stage with my companions,” Hermoso recalled when asked by the prosecutor. “I didn’t even expect it,” added the athlete. At this point, the soccer player recalled that the World Cup victory was a “historical event” that cost “a lifetime to achieve.” “At no time could I expect something like this to happen in the end (…) In a trusted person “I don’t think anyone would expect that I was going to use that moment to do something like that, no matter how spontaneous it was,” reproached Hermoso, who also explained that when he got off the stage he told what happened with Rubiales to his teammates Alexia Putellas and Irene Paredes. .
Before the judge, Rubiales defended that the kiss was a “display of affection” that occurred “naturally”, in the light of “millions of eyes” and that it was “with consent.” When asked by Hermoso’s lawyer, he asserted that it was a “totally extraordinary celebration,” that he asked the player before kissing her and that it occurred “with consent.”
“If I asked him before, how could I not respect him?”, he responded to the question of whether he considered that he had respected the player by kissing her on the mouth, and then pointed out that after that episode Hermoso “left dying of laughter” and giving him “two slaps in the side.”
However, in her statement before the Prosecutor’s Office, revealed by the Telecinco program ‘Código 10’, Hermoso declared that the kiss was not consensual nor did she feel respected as a person and soccer player. “They were subjecting me to something that I never sought or did to find myself in that situation,” she revealed.
