Former Spanish football president Luis Rubiales plans to appeal to the Supreme Court following the confirmation of his fine for forcibly kissing Jenni Hermoso.
Disgraced ex-chief of the Spanish Football Federation, Luis Rubiales, will challenge the Supreme Court’s upholding of his $12,600 (€10,800) penalty for forcibly kissing Jenni Hermoso, his lawyer announced on Wednesday.
Following a highly anticipated trial that captivated the nation, Spain’s highest criminal court ruled in February that Rubiales was guilty of sexual assault for the kiss during the 2023 Women’s World Cup, an act that sparked worldwide condemnation.
The Audiencia Nacional acquitted him of a distinct charge of coercion, which alleged he pressured Hermoso to minimize the incident afterward. Both sides appealed the ruling, which did not meet the two-and-a-half-year prison sentence that prosecutors had pursued, provoking outrage among feminist organizations that criticized the punishment as excessively lenient. Rubiales insisted that the kiss was merely a consensual “peck” shared between friends celebrating during a medal ceremony after star player Hermoso had just contributed to Spain’s victory over England in the final in Sydney, firmly denying any coercion.
In a statement released on Wednesday, the court announced it had denied the appeals from both the defense and the prosecution, upholding the conviction and the imposed fine. “The kiss was not consensual,” and Hermoso “voiced her dissatisfaction with the incident, as she confirmed during the trial, along with her teammates,” noted the court. “It cannot be asserted that a kiss in such circumstances was typical or commonplace.” Additionally, the court affirmed that Rubiales, former women’s national team coach Jorge Vilda, and two ex-senior federation officials, Albert Luque and Ruben Rivera, were exonerated of the coercion accusation.
Rubiales’s attorney, Olga Tubau, informed the AFP news agency that he plans to contest the ruling at the Supreme Court.
A distinct motion by the prosecutors to conduct a retrial, primarily due to concerns regarding the judge’s neutrality, was rejected.
The court also upheld a restriction preventing Rubiales from approaching Hermoso within a 200-meter (656-foot) distance and from any form of communication with her for one year.
The kiss sparked an international backlash that compelled Rubiales to step down from his position, resulted in a three-year ban from all football-related activities, and led the federation into a prolonged state of chaos.
The incident transformed Hermoso, the leading scorer for the national women’s team, into a symbol of the battle against sexism and the macho culture prevalent in sports.
Additionally, Rubiales is facing scrutiny over alleged financial misconduct amounting to millions of euros concerning the relocation of the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia, which involved a firm owned by Barcelona legend Gerard Pique.
Rubiales has dismissed these accusations as “falsehoods.”
On Wednesday, the Audiencia Nacional ruled that the kiss was not consensual, noting that Hermoso had objected from the very beginning. The court determined that Rubiales “restrained himself” in his interactions with other players and “could have easily done the same” with the captain. During the initial trial, Hermoso stated she had not consented to the kiss, which she felt “disrespected” her and “tainted one of the happiest days” of her life.
The court reaffirmed the sentence issued in February, which included a prohibition on Rubiales from approaching Hermoso within a 200m radius and from communicating with her for a year. Additionally, the court upheld the decision to not convict Rubiales of coercion. Prosecutors had claimed he pressured Hermoso to publicly declare that the kiss was consensual, a statement Rubiales refuted. Three former employees of the Spanish football federation – coach Jorge Vila, marketing executive Rubén Rivera, and sporting director Albert Luque – were previously found not guilty of coercion, a ruling that was also maintained on Wednesday.
