Luis Rubiales is one step away from sitting in the dock. The judge of the National Court Francisco de Jorge has concluded the investigation into the kiss he gave to the national team player Jennifer Hermoso during the trophy presentation of the World Cup final, in Sydney (Australia). After carrying out all the relevant procedures, the instructor concluded that the kiss to Hermoso “was not consented to and was a unilateral and surprising initiative” by Rubiales. For this reason, he proposes to judge him together with the sports director of the men’s team, Albert Luque, the former coach of the women’s team Jorge Vilda and the former marketing manager of the Federation Rubén Rivera for the subsequent pressures.
The case focused on the investigation of alleged crimes of sexual assault and coercion. Nevertheless, the magistrate does not propose to try them for any of these crimes – or for others -, and assures that at this moment “there is no need” for the instructor to make “a detailed assessment”, nor that specify “the specific types of penalties”. Regarding the kiss, the magistrate assures that “the erotic purpose or not or the state of euphoria and agitation experienced as a result of the extraordinary sporting triumph” achieved with the achievement of the soccer World Cup “are elements of competition and legal consequences of which they will have to be assessed in the oral and public trial before the body in charge of prosecution”.
In other words, the judge leaves in black and white “some facts broad enough to give a flexible margin to the accusations” so that these are the ones that, in their respective indictments, specify the crimes for which they must be tried . Thus, De Jorge begins the account of the events on August 20, 2023, when Hermoso “receives the protocol greeting and congratulations of the president of the Federation, he holds his head with both hands, at the height of ears, and in a surprising and unexpected way he plants a kiss on the lips of the player”. The player, says the judge, did not “warn the defendant’s intention to kiss her on the lips nor did she give him her consent”. Hermoso, bewildered and surprised by the unexpected kiss on the lips, did not have time to react. According to the judge’s account, Hermoso tried to play down its importance at first and continue to celebrate the historic triumph.
However, as the hours went by, the instructor continues, the euphoria of the triumph gave way to discomfort and the feeling of having been offended by the action reported, discomfort that increased in the face of pressure from Rubiales and his close circle to publicly state that the kiss had been consented to. Pressures “that created a situation of anxiety and intense stress in the player”.
In the account contained in the interlocutory it is clear that the judge of the National Court in charge of the matter gives more credibility to the testimonies of the players than to those investigated in the matter regarding the pressures received in the flight back to Spain and once set foot on dry land. That is why he considers that, with respect to Luque, Vilda and Ribera, there are indications of the existence of a concerted action by the three, agreed with Luis Rubiales, “to bend the will” of Hermoso and get him to agree to record “a video in which he said that the kiss had been consented”. The judge now gives the Prosecutor’s Office and the prosecution ten days to request the opening of an oral trial, or the dismissal of the case.
