The prosecution leaves little room for doubt in the document in which asks for two and a half years in prison For Luis Rubiales: the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) not only He kissed Jennifer Hermoso without her consentif not more harassed her and pressured her again and again, with its environment, to try to get rid of the consequences.
In a very harsh letter, made public this Wednesday, the public prosecutor asked him for a year in prison for sexual assault and another year and a half for coercion. Added to this is the demand for a compensation of 50,000 euros in favor of the footballer as well as a restraining order and a ban on communicating with her for four years.
He also asks for prison sentences for those closest to Rubiales in the Federation, these people who would also have participated in the harassment of Hermoso so that he defended the president of the RFEF at the time: thus, he asks for one year and additional half for prison for coercion for the sports director, Albert Luque; the coach, Jorge Vilda; and the marketing director, Rubén Rivera.
For them, this also requires another solidarity compensation of 50,000 euros and a shame of special disqualification dedicate himself to the sporting field until the end of his sentence, which also extends to Rubiales himself.
To date, he has an order in force that prevents him from approaching within 200 meters of Hermoso and is located in the Dominican Republicfrom where he plans to return on April 6, in the midst of an investigation into the affair contracts concluded under his mandate which, last week, gave rise to several arrests andrecordings at the RFEF and at his own home.
Far from their duties… but they keep their contracts
After the prosecution wrote this Wednesday, the RFEF press releaseswho announced its decision to suspend the implicated leaders from their functions, thus separating Luque from his position as sports director and Rivera from his role as director of the marketing department, specifying that “they will cease to exercise their functions until this legal matter is clarified.”
Both coaches, although already under investigation, continued to carry out their duties within the Federation and, in fact, Luque recently participated in a press conference before the team’s matches national. Now, the RFEF has only dismissed them from their positions, but this measure does not affect their contracts, so for the moment they could continue to charge their respective salaries.
Low prison sentences
In any case, the indictment asks low penaltiesbecause the range of sexual assault varies from one year to four years in prison and the request is made for minimum sentence prison for this crime. Concerning the sentence requested by the prosecution for coercion, it is in progress intermediate range for this crime, which ranges from six months to three years in prison.
The Prosecutor’s Office has ample evidence put into practice during the investigation that Rubiales’ kiss with Hermoso was not consensual and the attitude of the former RFEF president and his subordinates constant pressure and harassment to the player, not only in the stadium, but also later in the locker room, on the plane and during the celebratory trip to Ibiza.
As for the compensation requested, 50,000 euros for the sexual assault and the same amount for coercion, they are higher, but the prosecution takes into account that the footballer suffered a situation of anxiety and stressas documented by the testimonies and evidence produced during the investigation, notably by the continuous nature of these coercions over time: a planned strategy that Rubiales developed little by little with his subordinates and in which Vilda, Rivera and Luque participated.
Constant harassment
A few days after the World Cup final, during the celebration trip to Ibiza, the strategy of the RFEF management was the same: bend the will of Hermoso so she could say the kiss had been consensual and she hadn’t felt uncomfortable. However, she got up from the first moment, with the support of her teammates.
Something that the prosecution takes into account when formulating its indictment, in which it requests certainly lower sentences than those that other parties will request, since the footballer herself is also represented in this procedure by her union , Futpro, which will likely seek harsher sanctions from prison.
Many witnesses, not only from Jennifer Hermoso’s entourage, but also from officials of the Federation itself, recognized that there was a constant harassment of the player so that she could say publicly that everything had been consensual and a kind of joke between the two, which the footballer refused from the first moment.
The Office of the Prosecutor specifically appreciates that Hermoso kept the same version: Since the facts, in his statement and throughout the investigation, he has not changed his criteria and maintained that it had never been consented. Not having encountered contradictions and having always said the same thing, that he never wanted this kiss, gives strength to his credibility and his testimony.
Luque’s role in coercion
The indictment includes details that were not known during the investigation regarding the role of the RFEF sports director so far, Albert Luquein this harassment of Jennifer Hermoso.
Aunque ya sabía que llegó al point de plázarse personalmente en Ibiza et que contactó à un amiga de la futbolista to arrange the agreement, según la Fiscalía pasó también this line and no solo le pidió que rectificara and que jejera que el need había sido consentido, otherwise what It bordered on threatening.
So, he He said he only had two years left. as a footballer, who was about to retire and even He offers her a position at the Federation if he agreed to support Rubiales’ version. Furthermore, Luque even told him that if he didn’t do it, he would be a bad person, that I would end up alone in life and that he would be happy.
Luque has not been in power for long and is a man of total confidence of Rubiales, his right-hand man and friend of the president of the RFEF at the time, who appointed him director.
Another contract with Rocha at the helm
A fateful day for the RFEF, this Wednesday, in which it also appeared that the tentacles of Luis Rubiales were apparently still very active until barely a month ago, since the Civil Guard is investigating another contract worth more than a million euros to Gruconsa, the construction company from which Rubiales allegedly benefited, since with Pedro Rocha as president.
Concretely, the Central Operational Unit (UCO) of the Civil Guard is investigating a contract worth 1.3 million euros, of the month of Februarywith the construction company headed by Ángel González Segura, brother of the former legal director of the Federation, Pedro González Segura.
In this contract, the same dynamic would be followed as in the previous ones of expansion of La Cartuja stadium or in the Ciudad del Fútbol de Las Rozas, always with the same construction company run by the brother of the head of legal services at the RFEF.
When this work is awarded, it is checked whether there has been embezzlement of RFEF funds and whether the construction company has made payments to companies linked to the former footballer baby. The final piece of the puzzle at hand is whether Nene has investments for money laundering with Rubiales in the Dominican Republic.
At the same time, we learned this Wednesday that the two men had held conversations about the search for “land available for tourism development” in Green cap.