Spain’s ex-football chief Luis Rubiales found guilty of sexual assault

Rubialies found guilty of sexually assaulting footballer Jenni Hermoso by forcibly kissing her and ordered to pay fine.

A Spanish court has found former football chief Luis Rubiales guilty of sexual assault for kissing football player Jenni Hermoso without her consent after the 2023 Women’s World Cup Final.

Rubiales, who was acquitted of coercion, was given a fine of 10,000 euros ($10,455) on Thursday by the Audiencia Nacional court. He was ordered not to go within a 200-metre (660-foot) radius of Hermoso and banned from communicating with her for one year.

While Hermoso has stated that the kiss was not consensual and told the court that she felt “disrespected”, Rubiales has refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing, previously referring to calls for his resignation as “false feminism” and telling the court on Tuesday that he remained “absolutely sure” that the kiss was consensual.

The incident cast a pall over Spain’s victory in the 2023 Women’s World Cup and set off a debate about sexism faced by female athletes. The 47-year-old Rubiales resigned in September 2023 amid widespread outrage, but continued to take a combative stance in his public statements.

Prosecutors had sought jail time for Rubiales, composed of one year for assault and 18 months for coercion, alleging that Rubiales and several prominent Spanish football officials had attempted to coerce Hermoso into saying that the kiss was consensual and downplay the incident.

The court declined to sentence Rubiales to prison time and acquitted him and the three co-defendants of coercion.

The 34-year-old Hermoso, the all-time top scorer for the Spanish women’s team, told the court that the forcible kiss ruined one of the “happiest days” of her life and that such acts “should not happen in any social or work setting”.

Source

:

Al Jazeera and news agencies