Prosecutors had sought a jail time period of two-and-a-half years for Rubiales — one 12 months for sexual assault and 18 months for coercion — for having allegedly pressured the participant to downplay the incident afterwards.
The decide at Spain’s Excessive Court docket discovered Rubiales responsible of sexual assault over the kiss and fined him 10,800 euros ($11,300), however spared him a jail sentence.
Rubiales was additionally banned from getting inside a radius of 200 metres of Hermoso and from speaking along with her for a interval of 1 12 months.
Video footage of the scandal that rocked Spanish soccer exhibits then-Spanish federation chief Rubiales clasping Hermoso’s head on the 2023 Girls’s World Cup medal ceremony in Sydney and kissing her on the lips earlier than letting her go together with two slaps on the again.
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The worldwide outcry over the kiss pressured Rubiales to resign in shame and thrust the highlight on the prevalence of macho tradition and sexism in sport.
Hermoso, 34, stated on the opening day of the trial on February 3 she felt “disrespected” after a non-consensual kiss that “mustn’t occur in any social or work setting”.
Her teammates described underneath oath how she cried and felt “overwhelmed” following the incident, whereas her brother Rafael Hermoso has stated she got here underneath stress to downplay the affair to guard the federation chief.
However Rubiales, 47, informed the court docket he was “completely certain” Hermoso consented to the kiss as she went as much as obtain her winner’s medal, which was broadcast reside all over the world, and denied placing stress on her after the incident.
“She squeezed me very tightly underneath my armpits, she lifted me, and after I got here down I requested her if I may give you a kiss, and she or he stated ‘OK’, that is what occurred,” he stated, describing it as “an act of affection”.
Rubiales conceded he “made a mistake” within the incident on the rostrum, saying he ought to have “been in a extra institutional position”, however denied he had dedicated any offence.
‘Uncontrollable pleasure’
Whereas his behaviour was “inappropriate” it was not “felony”, his lawyer Olga Tubau stated throughout her closing arguments, calling the kiss an “expression of uncontrollable pleasure”.
Video pictures of Hermoso celebrating and ingesting champagne along with her teammates within the altering room shortly after the incident show the participant was not upset by the kiss, she added.
However public prosecutor Marta Durantez Gil rejected this line of thought throughout her closing arguments by which she additionally stated there was “little doubt” the kiss was “non-consensual”.
“How lengthy are we going to maintain demanding heroic behaviour from the sufferer of a sexual assault? Wasn’t she entitled to have a good time such a sporting triumph?” she requested.
The court docket acquitted the three different accused within the case, ex-women’s nationwide staff coach Jorge Vilda and two former federation officers, of the cost of coercion.
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‘Faux feminism’
Equality Minister Ana Redondo welcomed the court docket ruling, saying it demonstrated that “when there isn’t any consent, there may be aggression”.
Rubiales’ stance on the stand contrasted with the defiance he displayed when the scandal broke.
Throughout an emergency federation assembly in August 2023, he performed down the significance of the kiss and rebuffed requires his resignation, railing in opposition to “false feminism”.
Rubiales resigned in September that 12 months after soccer’s international governing physique FIFA suspended him and Spanish prosecutors opened an investigation into alleged sexual assault. He had been federation chief since 2018.
Hermoso, the all-time high scorer for the Spain ladies’s staff who now performs for Mexican membership Tigres, was not referred to as as much as the nationwide squad instantly after the World Cup.
New coach Montse Tome defined she needed to guard the participant and denied omitting her from the squad was a “punishment”.
