Jenni Hermoso confirms before the judge that she experienced constant harassment from Rubiales's surroundings after the kiss

The soccer player Jenni Hermoso confirmed this Tuesday at the National Court that, after the “non-consensual” kiss that Luis Rubiales gave her after the World Cup final, she experienced a situation of constant harassment during the hours and days that followed so that she could go out in public to defend the actions of the then president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF). As confirmed by legal sources present in her statement before Judge Francisco de Jorge, who instructs the baptized Rubiales case, the player has insisted that the kiss was “unexpected” and that, during the following days, the institution deployed a set of maneuvers to try to pressure her. “Everything went well. Everything is now in the hands of justice,” Hermoso said upon leaving the court.

The judge has kept a case open since September for two crimes: one of sexual assault, for the kiss that Rubiales gave him on August 20 in Sydney (Australia) during the medal ceremony after the championship final; and another of coercion, due to the alleged operation later orchestrated within the RFEF against the athlete and her entourage to downplay the importance of the action of the top manager, who was increasingly cornered and who ended up suspended by the FIFA. For these events, in addition to the former president of the federation, coach Jorge Vilda is also accused, who would be dismissed from his position as coach of the women's team; Albert Luque, director of the national team (men); and Rubén Rivera, responsible for marketing of the organism.

”Thank you very much for the support you have had with me. “I'm fine, I'm strong,” Hermoso told the media this Tuesday upon leaving the statement, which was made behind closed doors.

According to legal sources, before saying these words, the footballer confirmed to the magistrate that her family was pressured during the flight back to Spain from Sydney. Along those lines, her brother already said that Vilda approached her and told her to think about the “personal and professional consequences” that the athlete could suffer if the scandal continued. The footballer has also stressed that she tried to coerce her in Ibiza, where the champions celebrated the title. Rivera and Luque are located on the island, very close to Rubiales, who tried to contact the player through intermediaries when she had chosen to isolate herself as much as possible from the outside. According to Hermoso, her normal life was altered with these maneuvers, causing her to feel uneasy and sad.

The version offered by Hermoso, reinforced by almost another dozen witnesses who appeared before the judge before her, follow the line that the player already drew during her statement at the State Attorney General's Office at the beginning of September. She then remembered the moment of the kiss: “The first thing I say to him [a Rubiales] When I hugged him, it was 'the one we've messed up'. He jumps on me, I stand firm to support us. When he came down he told me that 'we had won this World Cup thanks to me'. The next thing I remember is his hands on my head and I don't remember hearing anything else.” “At no time was he consented. He did not respect me either as a player or as a person. I was experiencing something historic and I thought that something like this was going to have consequences. I didn't do anything to find myself in that situation. […] I didn't expect it, I didn't expect that on that stage… It was the World Cup medal ceremony. A lot of emotion, a lot of joy, but I did not look for that moment or do anything for this act to take place,” the athlete explained to Marta Durántez, lieutenant prosecutor of the National Court.

Calm and forceful

Just one day after announcing his signing for the Mexican side Tigres, Hermoso arrived at the National Court this Tuesday. He entered the building 10 minutes before 10:00, the time at which he was scheduled. She did it calmly, through the main door and accompanied by his team of lawyers. And she greeted the crowd of journalists and television cameras stationed at the doors. The soccer player has chosen to make statements to reporters at the end of her appearance as a victim. Rubiales, on the other hand, refused to answer the media's questions when he sat as a defendant before the magistrate in mid-September—an interrogation from which he emerged with a 200-meter restraining order.

The player spent almost three hours inside the National Court. According to legal sources, the judge asked Hermoso about the kiss and how he progressively realized the seriousness of what happened. The international has also assured that she never uttered the words included in a statement issued by the RFEF to minimize the kiss and that only, after the insistence of several employees of the organization for her to approve that press release, did she tell them with exhaustion: “Do Whatever you want”. The athlete, who has offered a forceful account, has added that she was not a friend of Rubiales, although she did have her phone number and she once spoke with him.

With this Tuesday's statement, the magistrate has completed almost the entire puzzle of the Rubiales case. De Jorge already wrote in writing a month ago that his investigation is “practically exhausted” and that, if there are no last-minute surprises, this interrogation was foreseeably going to be the “last.” In these four months of investigation, more than twenty people have sat before the judge to answer his questions: the four defendants (although Luque only answered his lawyer), 16 witnesses, two lip reading experts and Hermoso herself. . Their stories are also accompanied by other evidence collected by the National Court, such as the videos of the medal ceremony and the subsequent celebrations for the victory in the World Cup.

The instruction enters at a key moment. The Prosecutor's Office does not plan to request further proceedings. And the magistrate must now assess whether the investigation into him has ended and, in that case, whether he has sufficient evidence to propose trying any of the suspects. Although, in the event that he believes that he does not have enough elements to put them on the bench and dismisses the case, the accusations could still appeal to the Criminal Chamber so that three other judges can study it in the second instance. Everyone knows, therefore, that the battle is not over.

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