Luis Rubiales judgment: Jenni Hermoso testifies against former RFEF chief

Winner of the Spain Cup Beautiful Jenni He testified at the trial of the former head of the Luis Rubiales Football Federation on Monday, saying the kiss that caused a “national” moment, ruined one of the happiest days of my life. “

The 34 -year -old striker was the first witness to appear before the Superior Court of Madrid, with Rubiales, 47, accused of sexual assault and trying to coercion beautiful, with the help of three other men, to declare that the kiss had been consensual

He denies those charges.

Rubiales was seen by millions worldwide grabbing beautiful by the head and planting a kiss on his lips during the awards ceremony after the 2023 Women’s World Cup final.

“He grabbed my head ephemerally,” Hermosa told the court on Monday. “I couldn’t react. It was a thousandth of a second. I felt that I was completely out of context. I knew my boss was kissing me.

“That shouldn’t happen. I felt disrespected.

“I told Alexia (Putellas) and Irene (walls) that Rubiales had kissed me on my mouth. Alexia said ‘Incredible!’ I felt it was not normal. “

Rubiales, who will give evidence at the end of this month, has said that the gesture was agreed.

Beautiful, who was questioned first by the state prosecutor, and then by a lawyer for the defense of Rubiales, described what he said were the efforts of the RFEF to protect Rubiales after the kiss.

“The bus (from the team) stopped and got off. The press officers were waiting for me,” said beautiful, describing an incident while the team was traveling to the airport in Sydney.

“They showed me a cell phone with a statement. They had written it to send to the press and calm the shock. They wanted to take that step, so that the fire went out. I did the text. I did not do it ‘I want to know what exactly said.

Beautiful said Rubiales spoke with her personally, during Australia’s flight to Spain.

“(Rubiales) asked me to help him,” he said. “That there was a lot of fuss, that they called him an aggressor. I told him no, that he was not going to do anything. He asked me (to do it) to his daughters, that they were having a bad time.

The posterior scandal eclipsed the first victory of the World Women’s Cup in Spain and proved to be a turning point for the efforts of the players of Spain to expose sexism and achieve parity with the male counterparts.

“From the moment I stepped on Spain, I had television cameras 24 hours a day outside my house, the people who expected me, the people who follow me, the people who took me photos,” he said beautiful to court.

“I had to leave Madrid with my whole family. I was afraid to go out in the event that people stopped me. I received death threats, messages of all kinds. We left Madrid. It was unsustainable.”

The trial will also see several of the beautiful teammates, including the winner of Ballon d’Or Putellas, they testify.

Rubiales has asked his daughters to take the stand.

He and his Coacusados, the former coach of the national team Jorge Vilda, former sports director of the Spanish Football Football Federation (RFEF), Albert Luque, and the former Marketing Chief of RFEF, Ruben Rivera, will testify or after 12 February once the court has interviewed the rest of the witnesses.

The Prosecutor’s Office is looking for a sentence of 2 and a half years in prison for Rubiales; In Spain, these sentences delivered under two years of age can generally escape from imprisonment when paying damage if they have no previous convictions.

The scandal caused a strike of the teammates of beautiful team and saw several heads roll in the federation, with the man and the successor of Rubiales on the right and was also expelled and a woman was named to train the women’s team for the first time .

Reuters information contributed to this report.