Former Spanish football president Luis Rubiales has been slapped with a restraining order and must avoid the player he kissed
MADRID – Luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish Football Federation, an interim injunction was granted He has been banned from contacting the player he kissed on the lips at the Women’s World Cup, Spain’s national court said on Friday.
Rubiales appeared before Judge Francisco de Jorge and denied any wrongdoing when questioned about kissing player Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the awards ceremony, prosecutors said.
After Rubiales’ hearing, the judge issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting Rubiales from being within 200 meters of Hermoso. The public prosecutor’s office had demanded that this ban reach 500 meters.
The judge rejected prosecutors’ request to also require Rubiales to report to court every 15 days, as well as Hermoso’s lawyer’s request to freeze assets belonging to Rubiales.
Rubiales kissed Hermoso on the lips after Spain defeated England to win the women’s world title on August 20 in Sydney, Australia. He said she consented to the kiss, but Hermoso has repeatedly denied this.
Spanish prosecutors Rubiales has been formally charged sexual assault and coercion last week. According to Hermoso, immediately after the scandal broke, Rubiales pressured her to speak out in his defense.
Rubiales denied both allegations as he answered questions from the judge in an hour-long hearing that was closed to the public, prosecutors said.
Neither Rubiales nor his defense attorney Olga Tubau spoke to the media outside the National Court.
Hermoso’s lawyer Carla Vall i Duran said they were satisfied with the hearing.
“We can continue to claim that the kiss was not consented, which is what we said from the beginning,” Vall i Duran said. “Thanks to the (images of the kiss), the whole world, the whole country could see that there was no consent whatsoever. And we will prove that in court.”
Rubiales, 46, finally gave up and announced on Sunday under immense pressure from the government and football authorities he stepped back from his position as President of the Football Association. He had already been provisionally suspended by football’s governing body FIFA.
De Jorge is conducting the preliminary investigation into the allegations against Rubiales and will then decide whether the case should go to trial.
According to a sexual consent law passed in Spain last year, Rubiales could face a fine or a prison sentence of one to four years if found guilty of sexual assault.
The new law The difference between “sexual harassment” and “sexual assault” was abolished and any non-consensual sexual act was sanctioned.
Hermoso had already testified before prosecutors last week when she accused Rubiales of sexual assault before she left Spain to join her Mexican club Pachuca.
In the days after the World Cup final, Rubiales said the kiss was “mutual” and like it “could be given to one of my daughters.”
Hermoso replied that that was a lie.
“I felt vulnerable and the victim of an impulsive, sexist, misplaced act without my consent.” Hermoso said in a statement posted on social media. “Simply put, I was disrespected.”
