the Spanish prosecutor’s office is demanding a year and a half in prison against Jorge Vilda

A trial should take place in the “forced kiss affair”: Prosecutors, presenting their requisitions in advance in Spain, on Wednesday demanded two and a half years in prison against the former strongman of Spanish football Luis Rubiales for kissing Jenni Hermoso without her consent .

This kiss on the mouth of the Spanish number 10 in front of cameras around the world, a few minutes after the triumph of La Roja (the national team) on August 20 in Sydney during the final of the Women’s World Cup, caused a wave of indignation in Spain and abroad, and forced Rubiales to resign the following month.

He could therefore also put him behind bars for two crimes, the first sexual assault, for which the prosecution is asking for a year in prison, the second for coercion, where the imposed penalty is a year and a half in prison.

The public prosecutor also asks that Rubiales be put on probation for two years after serving his sentence and that he pay 50,000 euros in compensation to the player for the single offense of sexual assault.

The date for a possible trial is not yet known.

Since a recent reform of the Spanish Penal Code, a kiss without consent can be considered sexual assault, a criminal category that gathers all types of sexual violence, including rape.

The coercion offense refers to the pressure, direct and indirect, that was exerted on the player in the days after the incident to convince her to say that the kiss had been consensual, particularly by means of a video.

Three other people from RFEF are charged in this case for the same coercive offence.

The prosecution is therefore demanding a year and a half in prison against Jorge Vilda, former coach of the women’s team, Rubén Rivera, former marketing director of the Confederation, and Albert Luque, sports director of the men’s team.

The prosecution also asks these three men and Rubiales to pay compensation of 50,000 euros to be paid jointly to Jenni Hermoso for the crime of coercion.

Sphere of intimacy

The judge in the High Court who led the investigation concluded that this kiss had not been consented and was a unilateral initiative, done by surprise, the court explained in January.

“A kiss on the mouth affects the sphere of intimacy related to sexual relations,” she continued, considering that it would be up to the court “to consider during the trial” the consequences of “(its) erotic purpose or not, just like the state of euphoria and agitation felt after the extraordinary sporting triumph” of the Spanish team.

Luis Rubiales, 46, continued to highlight in his defense his “emotion” during the coronation of La Roja, “a moment of happiness”, and denied any “sexual connotation”.

On August 20, a few minutes after the women’s team’s victory in Sydney, he grabbed Jennifer Hermoso’s head with both hands and surprised her with a kiss on the mouth. He always claimed that Jenni Hermoso agreed.

A version rejected by Jenni Hermoso, who said that she “felt vulnerable and victim (…) of an impulsive and sexist act, inappropriate and without consent on (her) part”.

Initially refusing to back down for “a little consensual kiss”, five days later, in a resounding speech, he attacked what he described as “fake feminism”.

Under pressure, he finally left office on 10 September, saying he was the victim of a “disproportionate campaign”.

He has since been suspended for three years from all football-related activity by FIFA, a decision he intends to appeal.

Spanish justice has also forbidden him to approach less than 200 meters from Jenni Hermoso (33), who despite herself has become a global symbol of the fight against sexual violence and was chosen as the woman of the year 2023 by the Spanish edition of the prestigious American magazine GQ.

These requisitions from the prosecution at this court in Madrid come two days after the release – pending the appeal – of the Brazilian footballer Dani Alves, sentenced to four and a half years in prison in the first instance for the rape of a young woman in Barcelona (north). -east) in December 2022.