The Spanish participant kissed on the lips by the soccer president on the Girls’s World Cup closing has appeared in court docket to testify within the sexual assault case towards the previous official.
Key factors:
- Jenni Hermoso has given the court docket her model of the kiss by Luis Rubiales
- She testified behind closed doorways
- Luis Rubiales has beforehand denied wrongdoing to the decide
Jenni Hermoso was on the Madrid court docket on Tuesday to offer her model of the kiss by Luis Rubiales following Spain’s victory over England within the closing in Sydney in August.
“All the pieces went properly,” Hermoso informed reporters afterward. “The judicial course of will proceed its course, and thanks for the help that lots of you had given to me.”
The incident sparked outrage throughout the soccer world and ignited one of many worst crises within the historical past of the game in Spain.
It additionally led to a boycott of the nationwide staff by the World Cup-winning gamers, and to the eventual resignation of Rubiales regardless of his denial of wrongdoing and his allegation that the kiss was consensual.
Hermoso was anticipated to reiterate in court docket her allegations that the kiss was undesirable and Rubiales and his employees tried to stress her and her household to downplay the incident that tarnished Spain’s first Girls’s World Cup title.
Testifying behind closed doorways
The testimony was behind shut doorways and the court docket didn’t launch any particulars about her statements.
Spanish media stated Hermoso requested the decide to maintain her court docket look as personal as doable.
She arrived sporting a gray coat and waved to journalists earlier than coming into the court docket by one in all its major entrances alongside together with her attorneys.
Spanish state prosecutors accused Rubiales of sexual assault and coercion, alleging he tried to persuade Hermoso and her kinfolk to publicly downplay the kiss.
The decide can also be listening to testimony from different World Cup-winning gamers, coaches and federation officers, earlier than deciding whether or not to start out a trial.
Amongst these being investigated for allegedly attempting to stress Hermoso was former Spain girls’s nationwide staff coach Jorge Vilda and different former federation officers.
Rubiales beforehand denied wrongdoing to the decide who imposed a restraining order on him to not contact Hermoso.
Requires equality
The 33-year-old Hermoso, the file scorer for Spain’s girls’s staff, stated final yr she obtained threats within the fallout from the kiss, although she didn’t elaborate.
Hermoso turned considerably of a star in Spain after coming ahead to denounce the kiss and assist promote a “Me Too” motion within the nation.
She was one of many New Yr’s Eve presenters on public tv on Saturday, calling for a 2024 with extra equality.
Hermoso introduced this week that she is going to play for Mexican membership Tigres after a stint with Pachuca.
The boycott of the nationwide staff ended final yr after gamers got ensures of change inside the federation following the intervention of presidency officers.
Primarily based on a sexual consent regulation handed final yr, Rubiales might face a high quality or a jail sentence of 1 to 4 years if discovered responsible, in line with the prosecutors’ workplace in Madrid.
The brand new regulation eradicated the distinction between “sexual harassment” and “sexual assault,” sanctioning any unconsented sexual act.
FIFA banned Rubiales for 3 years till after the lads’s 2026 World Cup.
His ban will expire earlier than the following girls’s event in 2027.
He resigned because the federation president and as a UEFA vice-president on September 10 amid mounting stress in Spain from politicians and gamers. At some point later, UEFA thanked Rubiales for his service.
AP
