The Prosecutor’s Office of the National Court opens pretrial investigation proceedings against the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Luis Rubiales. In addition, he offers Jennifer Hermoso “to take action.” That is to say, she asks the soccer player if she wants to join, within a period of 15 days, the process of denouncing the kissing of the forward in the delivery of World Cup trophies.

The legal procedure is opened, in part, because the player herself declared, as reflected in the Prosecutor’s letter, that the kiss was not consented: “Not even her kiss was consented… I felt vulnerable and a victim of an assault.” An action that could be, according to the Public Ministry, constituting a crime of sexual assault, provided for and punished in article 178 of the Penal Code.

Although as established in article 191.1, “to proceed for the crimes of assault, harassment or sexual abuse, it will be necessary to report the aggrieved person, their legal representative or a complaint from the Public Prosecutor, who will act weighing the legitimate interests in the presence”. To this is added a requirement: “That the offender has not been acquitted, pardoned or punished abroad or, in the latter case, has not served the sentence.”

For its part, art. 23.2 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ) indicates that “the Spanish jurisdiction will know the crimes that have been committed outside the national territory provided that those criminally responsible are Spaniards or foreigners who have acquired Spanish nationality after the commission of the crime.” fact”, in addition to the fact that this is punishable in the place of execution (Australia), “unless, by virtue of an international treaty or a normative act of an international organization of which Spain is a part, said requirement is not necessary” .

Likewise, the legal text signed by the Deputy Prosecutor of the AN, Marta Durántez, recalls that the circular of the State Attorney General’s Office on the criteria for action after the reform of crimes against sexual freedom in the so-called Law of only yes It is yes it included among the acts “deserving of penal reproach” the kisses in the mouth, according to several sentences.

THE BACKGROUND OF THE CASE

The initiation occurs three days after the Public Ministry received, from the Madrid Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, a complaint filed by the president of the National School of Football Coaches in Spain (Cenafe), Miguel Ángel Galán against Rubiales, given that it understood that the matter, as it occurred outside Spanish territory, fell within its competence.

Meanwhile, in the Extraordinary Assembly of the RFEF, the also vice president of UEFA announced that he was not going to resign as head of the organization, alleging that “a social murder” was being carried out against him. He maintained that the kiss was “spontaneous, mutual and consensual”.

It was that same day when Hermoso came out with a statement in which he denied the highest president of Spanish football and said he was “victim of an attack” after an act “without any kind of consent.” At the time, he also denounced pressure from the Federation to change his story.

On Saturday, FIFA, through its Disciplinary Committee, agreed to suspend Rubiales “provisionally” “from all football-related activities at the national and international level.”