March 7 – Spanish prosecutors are seeking a retrial of the country’s disgraced former FA leader Luis Rubiales, arguing the judge incorrectly kept some evidence from the court and questioning his impartiality.
Rubiales was found guilty of sexual assault and fined more than €10,000 for the unconsented kiss on Jenni Hermoso at the 2023 Women’s World Cup medal ceremony.
The court’s ruling also banned the former Spanish FA (RFEF) president from going within a 200m radius of Hermoso or communicating with her for one year.
He and three other defendants – Jorge Vilda, coach of the World Cup-winning side, Rubén Rivera, the RFEF’s former head of marketing, and Albert Luque, former sporting director – were cleared of coercion charges they faced for allegedly trying to convince Hermoso to downplay the kiss that sparked outrage in Spain and prompted a worldwide backlash.
Prosecutors had originally asked for a two-and-a-half year prison sentence for Rubiales on the sexual assault and coercion charges. He denied wrongdoing and was spared a jail term.
They claim the judge was disrespectful and called for a new judge to oversee a new trial.
Feminist groups have claimed the verdict was too lenient and Hermoso is appealing it.
Prosecutors said in a statement that they were requesting the trial be declared null and void and “held again by another judge not tainted, to say the least, by an appearance of bias”.
They said Judge Jose Manuel Fernandez-Prieto “unduly” prevented the prosecutor in the trial, Marta Durantez, from posing certain questions and ignored some of the evidence. They also cited the “arbitrariness” of the sentence.
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