<\/p>\n
Spain player Jenni Hermoso has filed a criminal complaint over suspended football chief Luis Rubiales\u2019s kiss on her lips at the Women\u2019s World Cup final, prosecutors said Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors at Spain\u2019s top criminal court opened a preliminary investigation last week into whether Rubiales could be charged with the crime of \u201csexual assault\u201d over the unsolicited kiss.<\/p>\n
Hermoso\u2019s complaint, which was filed on Tuesday, boosts the chances that the court will press ahead with the case and Rubiales will be charged.<\/p>\n
The prosecutor\u2019s office of the National Court will now formally present its complaint against Rubiales \u201cas soon as possible\u201d, the prosecutor\u2019s office said Wednesday in a brief statement.<\/p>\n
Under Spanish law, sexual assault includes a wide array of crimes from online abuse and groping to rape, each with different penalties.<\/p>\n
The punishment for a non-consensual kiss can range from a fine to four years in prison, according to a spokeswoman for the prosecutor\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Spanish football federation (RFEF) president Rubiales, 46, sparked a worldwide backlash after forcibly kissing Hermoso during the medal ceremony following Spain\u2019s triumph in Sydney on August 20.<\/p>\n
Hermoso, 33, later said the unwanted kiss had left her feeling \u201cvulnerable and like the victim of an assault\u201d, with a statement on social media describing it as \u201can impulsive, macho act, out of place and with no type of consent on my part\u201d.<\/p>\n
Rubiales insists the kiss was consensual.<\/p>\n
World football governing body FIFA provisionally suspended Rubiales for 90 days after he refused to resign from his post.<\/p>\n
Some 81 players went on strike from the women\u2019s side in protest after Rubiales\u2019 fierce defensive speech following the incident, in which he railed against \u201cfalse feminism\u201d. They said they would not return until the RFEF\u2019s leadership was changed.<\/p>\n
Spain\u2019s top sports court (TAD) also agreed to investigate Rubiales after the government lodged a complaint.<\/p>\n
However the suspended chief said he would continue to defend himself \u201cto prove the truth\u201d over his kiss with Hermoso.<\/p>\n
In a statement last week Rubiales reiterated that the kiss was \u201ca mutual and consensual act\u201d with \u201coverflowing jubilation on both sides\u201d.<\/p>\n
The RFEF apologised for the \u201ctotally unacceptable behaviour\u201d of Rubiales on Tuesday and fired controversial Spain women\u2019s coach Jorge Vilda on Tuesday in the wake of the scandal.<\/p>\n
In a letter signed by its interim president Pedro Rocha, the RFEF offered its \u201cmost sincere apologies\u2026 for the totally unacceptable behaviour of its highest institutional representative during the final of the FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup 2023 and in the moments that followed\u201d.<\/p>\n
Vilda\u2019s former assistant Montserrat Tome is the new coach \u2014 it is the first time a woman has led the team. The next matches are in Nations League qualifying against Sweden and Switzerland on September 22 and 26 respectively.<\/p>\n
Before the World Cup 15 players refused to play for the national team because of disagreements with Vilda and the federation, although many relented and three were called up for the tournament.<\/p>\n
After the tournament Rubiales had pledged to extend Vilda\u2019s contract by four years and give him a significant pay hike.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile men\u2019s team defender Dani Carvajal came under fire for comments he made Tuesday night on Spanish radio, in which he said he did not want to position himself on the issue \u201cwithout knowing what really happened\u201d.<\/p>\n
Carvajal had said \u201cthere are people who must decide if there is a culprit or a victim\u201d and noted Hermoso had not filed a complaint at the time. He clarified his words in a news conference Wednesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn no moment did I say that Jenni was not the victim, I just said that the presumption of innocence (until proven otherwise) has to be maintained,\u201d said Real Madrid right-back Carvajal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf she\u2019s having a tough time we have to show solidarity with her, that\u2019s clear, like any person \u2014 I don\u2019t think the president is having a good time either.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Spain player Jenni Hermoso has filed a criminal complaint over suspended football chief Luis Rubiales\u2019s kiss on her lips at the Women\u2019s World Cup final, prosecutors said Wednesday. Prosecutors at Spain\u2019s top criminal court opened a preliminary investigation last week into whether Rubiales could be charged with the crime of \u201csexual assault\u201d over the unsolicited […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1074,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/09\/06221549a42a132.png?r=225728","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1073"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1073\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}