Luis Rubiales, former president of the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), stated this Wednesday that his forced kiss with Spain player Jenni Hermoso was not a sexual assault, and guaranteed that he did not coerce her.
“I can’t understand that this is a sexual assault,” Rubiales said in a television interview The sixthregarding the kiss he gave Hermoso during the medal ceremony shortly after Spain had won the world Cup in Australia and New Zealand in August last year.
His attitude spread around the world, causing a wave of indignation and would end up precipitating his dismissal, despite initial resistance.
Rubiales insisted that he cannot understand that this is considered sexual assault because it occurred “after winning a World Cup, between two friends, said Mrs. Hermoso, who had a relationship of trust and friendship.”
The former president of the federation recalled that he asked Hermoso before kissing her and “a sexual aggressor doesn’t ask, and in the sexual context there was nothing.”
🍸🍷🥂 There are many, but none like you.
🏆 This Saturday is the FINAL of the #CopaDelRey.#LaCopaMola pic.twitter.com/0OwDuGXxjQ
— RFEF (@rfef) April 3, 2024
Rubiales considered that Jenni Hermoso initially did not attach importance to the matter and then changed her position due to pressure, at the same time that she denied that it could be proven that she coerced the player to declare that everything had been consensual.
“No one will be able to prove that someone from the Federation coerced, if I spoke to them, but no one will be able to prove that we coerced,” Rubiales assured La Sexta.
“I have a clear conscience, things got out of control”, said the former president of the RFEF, who is awaiting trial in this case of the forced kiss.
Last week, the Public Prosecutor’s Office requested 2 and a half years in prison for Rubiales for the kiss, for which he will be tried on a date yet to be defined.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office accuses Rubiales of a crime of sexual assault, for the kiss itself, and another of coercion, for having pressured the athlete to “justify and approve the kiss she received against her will”, as indicated by the MP in his document, to which AFP had access.
Source: Gazetaesportiva
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