Spanish prosecutors demand Rubiales forced kiss trial be re-run

Prosecutors question the judge’s impartiality in sparing Rubailes jail time over his forced kiss on footballer Hermoso.

Spanish prosecutors have requested that the trial of the country’s former football federation chief Luis Rubiales for his forced kiss on Jenni Hermoso be annulled and re-run, notably questioning the judge’s impartiality.

The request, on Thursday, comes after Spain’s top criminal court last month found Rubiales guilty of sexual assault for the kiss, which occurred after Spain’s women’s football team won the World Cup, and fined him 10,800 euros ($11,370), sparing him jail in a sentence considered lenient by feminist groups.

The sentence fell well short of the demands of prosecutors, who had sought a total of two and a half years in prison for Rubiales, one year for sexual assault and 18 months for allegedly coercing Hermoso to downplay the kiss.

Hermoso is appealing the sentence, which also cleared Rubiales and three other defendants of coercion.

The prosecutors said in a statement that they were appealing the sentence and requested 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.

Fernandez-Prieto attracted attention during the trial for his brusque attitude, frequently interrupting and scolding participants.

The backlash unleashed by the kiss as Hermoso went up to receive her winner’s medal after Spain beat England in the 2023 Women’s World Cup final in Sydney forced Rubiales to relinquish his post in disgrace and plunged the football federation into a prolonged period of turmoil.

The trial captivated Spain and made Hermoso an icon of the fight against sexism and macho culture in sport.