Luis Rubiales should stand trial over the kiss he planted on the footballer Jenni Hermoso, a judge with Spain’s top criminal court has said, after a preliminary investigation in which he concluded that the former football chief’s gesture “was not consensual and was a unilateral and unexpected move”.
The high court said on Thursday that the investigative judge Francisco de Jorge had also proposed that three others, including the former women’s team coach Jorge Vilda, be tried over their alleged efforts to pressure Hermoso into stating publicly that the kiss had been consensual.
The court said the judge had found enough evidence to warrant a trial, though he had said questions about “whether the aim was erotic or not, or the state of euphoria and excitement due to the extraordinary sporting triumph are elements whose legal consequences will have to be examined”.
Prosecutors and lawyers now have 10 days to formally call for a trial, the court said.
The decision comes five months after Rubiales grabbed Hermoso by the head during the televised celebrations of Spain’s World Cup win, kissing her on the lips.
As outrage mounted globally, Rubiales fended off calls for his resignation, instead describing the act as a “consensual peck”.
Hermoso, 33, who ranks as Spain’s all-time top scorer, rejected any suggestion that the kiss was consensual and characterised Rubiales’ description as “categorically false”.
She filed a criminal complaint against Rubiales, 46, in September, and state prosecutors accused him of sexual assault and coercion days later.
By then the incident had set off a reckoning with sexism in Spanish football. Its rallying cry, “se acabó” or “it’s over”, soon spilled over into other spheres, paving the way for a broader conversation about sexism in Spanish society.
The court quoted the judge on Thursday as saying Hermoso “was not aware of the defendant’s intention to kiss her on the lips, nor did she give her consent to do so”.
He also said he believed there had been a concerted effort by Vilda, the director of the men’s team, Albert Luque, and the football federation’s former marketing manager Rubén Rivera to “wear down” Hermoso so that she would state against her will that the kiss had been consensual. These attempts created a “situation of anxiety and intense stress” for Hermoso, the court noted in a statement.
Vilda, Luque and Rivera deny having placed any pressure on Hermoso.
Rubiales, who could face a fine or up to four years in prison if found guilty of sexual assault, has repeatedly denied the charges against him. “I believe in the truth and I will do everything in my power to make sure it prevails,” he said last year as he announced he would step down as head of the federation.
