Luis Rubiales, the former head of Spain’s national soccer team, was found guilty on Thursday of forcibly kissing female soccer star Jenni Hermoso.
Rubiales, 47, was accused of sexual assault and coercion for delivering a very public kiss on Hermos’s lips in 2023 after Spain’s win at the women’s World Cup in Australia. Prosecutors also claimed that he tried to hush other players from talking about the incident.
Hermos, 34, maintained that she did not want to kiss Rubiales and accused him of assaulting her.
The trial ended on February 14, and the BBC reported that the verdict had been released.
Spain’s High Court found Rubiales guilty of sexual assault and fined him $11,300. Prosecutors had demanded a more than two-year prison sentence, but the court decided against any jail time. Rubiales was acquitted of the coercion charges.
In addition, the former soccer chief was banned from communicating with Hermos for a year and cannot come within 200 meters of her.
Three of Rubiales’ colleagues were also on trial for coercion and were accused of trying to hush the allegations, but all were acquitted of the charges. Acquitted were coach Jorge Vilda, Rubén Rivera, is the ex-head of marketing for the Real Federación Española de Fútbol (RFEF), and Albert Luque, former sporting director.
Rubiales has always maintained that he asked permission to kiss Hermos on the field that day, and she assented to his request. He has also claimed that there was no malice in the kiss and that it was just a “spontaneous” act.
“She squeezed me very tightly under my armpits, she lifted me, and when I came down I asked her if I can give you a kiss, and she said ‘OK’, that’s what happened,” Rubiales said of the incident.
He admitted that the kiss was a “mistake” during the trial and was ” inappropriate.”
Rubiales was initially defiant about the kiss and railed against “false feminism” when Hermos began making her accusations. FIFA quickly suspended him, and not long after that, he resigned from Spain’s soccer program, where he had been federation chief since 2018.
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