MADRID: Spanish soccer star Jenni Hermoso testified in Madrid Excessive Court docket on Tuesday (Jan 2) over the kiss she stated soccer federation chief Luis Rubiales planted on her lips with out her consent after Spain’s victory within the Ladies’s World Cup final summer time.
Hermoso spent round 2-1/2 hours talking behind closed doorways to investigating decide Francisco de Jorge, who’s inspecting proof together with tv footage earlier than deciding whether or not to approve prices and advance the case to trial.
She advised reporters as she left the court docket accompanied by her lawyer: “All is within the palms of justice, that is all I can say … the method will take its course.”
The 33-year-old ahead – Spain’s all-time high scorer – lodged a legal grievance of sexual assault and coercion in September over the kiss on the winners’ podium on Aug 20, saying she had not wished to be kissed, and that she felt “susceptible and a sufferer of an aggression”.
Rubiales, who resigned as president of the Royal Spanish Soccer Federation (RFEF) on Sep 10 amid heavy strain, after beforehand refusing to go, stated the kiss was “spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and consensual”.
The case despatched shock waves via the sporting world and society in Spain and overseas, prompting protests and additional accusations by girls that distinguished or highly effective males had pressured intimacy on them. In Spain, the social media hashtag #SeAcabo (“It is over”), turned a rallying cry.
In addition to potential legal prices, Rubiales faces an inquiry by Spain’s high sport court docket over alleged “critical misconduct”, and world soccer governing physique FIFA has banned him from workplace for 3 years.
In August, Excessive Court docket prosecutor Marta Durantez Gil stated the sexual assault cost that Rubiales may face carried a jail time period of between one and 4 years.
She stated Hermoso had stated in her grievance that she and her kinfolk had been put below strain by Rubiales and his entourage to say that she “justified and authorized what occurred”.
Choose Francisco de Jorge imposed a restraining order to stop Rubiales from approaching Hermoso when he appeared earlier than him in mid-September.
