The decision to charge Luis Rubiales, the former president of the Spanish Football Federation, for kissing world champion Jenni Hermoso on the lips without her consent is “completely illogical,” said UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin.
Spanish prosecutors are investigating a complaint by Hermoso against Rubiales for sexual assault, for the kiss after the final on August 20 and coercion by pressuring her to defend him.
The judge in charge of the case issued a restraining order on Friday prohibiting Rubiales from coming within 200 meters of Hermoso.
Ceferin, who served as a criminal lawyer before being elected UEFA president in 2016, said in an interview published Sunday in his native Slovenia that “what Rubiales did was inappropriate and incomprehensible.”
“But when I read that it had been considered a serious crime — to me, as a lawyer, it seems completely illogical,” Ceferin told the Slovenian media.
Rubiales received strong criticism from the Spanish government and various personalities from the world of football. The rejection was exacerbated by his refusal to resign as president of the RFEF in the week after the incident in Sydney.
Under the sexual consent law passed last year in Spain, Rubiales could receive a fine or a four-year prison sentence if he is found guilty of sexual assault.
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The new law eliminated the distinction between sexual abuse and assault, punishing any sexual act without consent.
Ceferin revealed that in his conversations with Rubiales he recommended that he resign. On September 10, three weeks after the World Cup final, Rubiales presented his resignation as president of the federation and vice president of UEFA.
AP
