Jennifer Hermoso has already hung the medal that consecrates her as world champion. She goes through the line of authorities at the Olympic Stadium in Sydney and, when it is her turn to greet Luis Rubiales, president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, he hugs her, holds her neck with his hands and kisses her on the back. the mouth that she did not expect. “I didn’t like it, huh! But what do I do? Look at me. Look at me!“, she responds to her teammates during the victory celebration in the locker room.
In an interview in ‘El Partidazo de COPE’, the footballer tiptoed through the controversy: “I am world champion and that is what I am going to take with me tonight“Replied Hermoso, who again showed, as he did a few hours before live on TikTok, his disagreement with this unexpected kiss:”I didn’t like it“.
The president of the RFEF was able to take this gesture, which he has not had with any other male champion, as “something natural“, as he said in the video in which he apologized for “what happened, I think very spontaneously, without bad faith on either side“This surprise kiss on the mouth, without apparent consent on the part of the woman who receives it and framed in a moment of euphoria and sporting effervescence outside of Spain, has been given at a time when society questions this type of act , although for him those who criticize him are “idiots of the ass”, “assholes” or “prigaos that do not know how to see the positive”, as he said in the same space of COPE.
“These images of Rubiales caressing, kissing, grabbing our champions take me back decades, where women, even being very remarkable in our work, were made to understand that we were very cute or very hot. It oozes machismo, but from the oldest”, says Altamira Gonzalo, spokesperson for the Themis Association of Women Lawyers. For this jurist, the “peak of two friends celebrating something”, as defined by the former president of the Association of Spanish Soccer Players (AFE), “it’s a sexual assault“, which is understood as an” unsolicited, unwanted, non-consensual and suffered sexual behavior “.
His conception coincides with those of the acting Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, and that of Social Rights and Agenda 2030, Ione Berarra, that they have described the kiss as “sexual violence”, for which reason “we cannot normalize” a similar gesture exempt from consent, Montero has insisted.
What we all think, if they do that with all of Spain watching, what won’t they do in private. Sexual violence against women has to end. Hugs to the Champions! https://t.co/FLExIstMDl
— Ione Belarra (@ionebelarra) August 20, 2023
Also the Minister of Culture and Sport, Miquel Icetahas demanded that the president of the RFEF “give explanations” for this “unacceptable” gesture. “He would have to explain, and it is required, why he gave this kiss to Jenni Hermoso and why he did not do it with another player, why he acted in that way and why he understands that it is completely admissible,” he indicates in this Along the same lines Miguel Lorente, professor of Legal Medicine at the University of Granada, specializing in gender violence.
Luis Rubiales has appeared this Monday, before arriving in Spain, before the cameras of his Federation. However, the explanation is limited to an apology “if there are people who have felt damaged by this.” “There is no other option. And also learn from this, and understand that when one is president of an institution as important as the Federation, he has to be more careful, especially in ceremonies,” he added.
The ‘pico’ that the president of the RFEF gave this Sunday to the player of the Spanish team did not take long to generate outrage and controversy on social media but Can it constitute a sexual offence? Is it prosecutable ex officio?
The jurists consulted by El Periódico de España, from the Prensa Ibérica group, agree on the need for complaint of the injured party if she considers that there was any lubricious mood or sexual intentionality, something that seems that it will not happen according to the public statements of the player and her environment, despite the fact that at first she stated that she did not “like” the gesture.
The Penal Code also contemplates the intervention of the Prosecutor’s Office, which should “weight” the interests at stakewhich seems to distance for the moment the filing of a complaint, to which is added the unknown of competence, as these are acts committed by a Spaniard outside the national territory.
Up to four years in jail
The Government delegate against Gender Violence, Judge Victoria Rosell, for its part, it was not long in situating what happened within the Penal Code, specifically in article 178 of the norm, with the prison sentence from one to four yearsas responsible for sexual assault, the one who performs any act that violates the sexual freedom of another person without their consent, although he added: “If the affected person decided to denounce”.
Information on how the president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation is elected @rfef And how can he be dismissed through a motion of censure, if he does not resign after his shameful performance today -and criminal, art 178 ss CP, if the affected person decided to denounce- https://t.co/Gi6R8bSR0x
— Mª Victoria Rosell Aguilar (@VickyRosell) August 20, 2023
Speaking to this newspaper, Rosell explains that Hermoso can denounce “or go to the Prosecutor’s Office so that the Prosecutor’s Office can sue.” He also sees no obstacle to the fact that the events occurred in Australia, given that in his opinion both the Organic Law of the Judiciary, which establishes Spanish jurisdiction over certain crimes committed abroad, and the Istanbul Convention would allow the Spanish justice system to act. “But being older and capable, it cannot be done against her will, although there is no rush either given the pressure, it is a crime that prescribes after five years,” says Rosell.
To place what happened criminally, the jurists consulted cite article 191 of the Penal Code, which states that “to proceed for the crimes of assault, harassment or sexual abuse, it will be necessary to denounce the aggrieved personof his legal representative or complaint from the Public Prosecutor, who will act empowering the legitimate interests in the presence”. Only when the victim is a minor, is a person with a disability or “in need of special protection” is when “the complaint will suffice of the Public Prosecutor”.
Other jurists do see the crime more clearly, such as Investigating judge number 4 Santander, Luis Enrique García Delgado, who on Twitter has stated after seeing the images of Rubiales that “kissing a third person without prior consent may constitute sexual assault, regardless of whether libidinous mood is present or not. The fact that it is done from a position of superioritywhich is granted by being president of the Federation, aggravates the act”.
Giving a third person a kiss without prior consent may constitute sexual assault, regardless of whether there is a lewd mood or not. The circumstance that it is done from a position of superiority, which is granted by being president of the RFEF, aggravates the act. https://t.co/SphZneaXlI
— Luis Enrique García Delgado???? (@alexisclerel) August 20, 2023
The consent key
Consent, then, is once again the key, and this is what the criminal lawyer José María de Pablo considers, who states to questions from this newspaper that “sexual assault is prosecutable through a complaint by the offended party, but also through a complaint from the Public Prosecutor’s Office”, and that for it to have a run “the key is to demonstrate that there was no consent.” In any case, according to the President of the Progressive Union of Prosecutors, Inés Herreros, without his denunciation the case seems to have “little sense”.
Let’s be aware of how we have internalized behaviors that are criminal from a technical point of view”
Another issue is that of jurisdiction, in which some lawyers, such as the lawyer and exfical José Antonio Frago, They disagree with the delegate of gender violence. “The requirements demanded by the organic law of the judiciary are not met, would not be prosecutable in Spain even if she denounced it”.
Miguel Lorente considers that, if Rubiales has no reason to kiss the soccer player, “he really took advantage of the moment to carry out that intrusive conduct of privacy of Hermoso”. “The fact is the same, although justice does not act without denunciation. If the victim reports, the act would be penalized for sure. The important thing is that we be aware as a society of how we have internalized, as part of normality and the expression of affection and joy, behaviors that are technically criminal“, reasons the professor at the University of Granada.
Administrative sanctions and social rejection
Luis Rubiales will be questioned from various channels: judicial, administrative and social. Miguel Lorente He gives the example of inappropriate conduct against women to explain the institutional sanction that could fall on the president of the RFEF. “If it is not serious enough for them to have a criminal complaint, for someone to be convicted, the university acts and penalizes them administratively, that is, professionally, because it understands that such conduct is not admissible.”
Altamira Gonzalo points out that, from a political point of view, it is “incompatible with equality between women and men, which is incumbent on all of us, that the president of the Federation is a macho sexual offender, disrespectful of women” and wonders ” how is he going to force everyone and all his subordinates to respect women, if he is incapable of doing it, even in public, in front of millions of people”. Themis spokeswoman claims her “resignation or termination, without delay”.
Until the moment this article is published, Luis Rubiales has been denounced before the Higher Sports Council by Miguel Ángel Galán Castellanos, president of the National Center of Soccer Coaches (CENAFE) so that the Administrative Court of Sports investigates “the scope of the act regulated by the new sports law”. Also, he insists that the RFEF protocol reflects “kissing by force” as a behavior related to sexual violence.
Ultimately, if Rubiales were neither sentenced nor sanctioned, he would receive “a social reproach”, launches the professor at the University of Granada. “He is not far from what Plácido Domingo said about ‘other times’ or when someone is partying and sleeps with a girl who is drunk and he says that he thought she wanted. In those cases, man is making the decision of what is appropriate at each moment”ditch Lorente.
2023-08-21 16:07:48
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