The Prosecutor's Office is acting as quickly as possible to file a complaint against the former president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales for the non-consensual kiss of the Spanish national team player Jenni Hermoso after winning the World Cup victory in Australia.
Once Hermoso herself has reported the events to the State Attorney General's Office, the next step to take will be to ask the Australian authorities if what happened there is a punishable act, that is, prosecuted criminally.
Tax sources explain that in order to continue with the process it is essential to first know if the country where the events occurred is also punished, given the requirement of double criminality to be able to prosecute an act outside of Spain.
According to the EFE agency, Australia includes in its legislation the concept of affirmative consent, which implies clear consent by both parties to maintain any type of sexual relations.
If in such a case it is determined that it was a non-consensual kiss, it could be considered a crime classified as "indecent assault", punishable by a maximum sentence of five years in prison in Australia.
One of the reasons why the matter could be paralyzed in Spain is because proceedings have already been initiated in the other country. However, the complaint should have been filed there, which did not happen, which a priori leaves the Prosecutor's Office of the National Court free to initiate criminal proceedings.
When the Prosecutor's Office opened proceedings on August 28, it already pointed out that "the sexual act suffered by Hermoso and carried out by Rubiales was not consensual" and therefore could be considered a crime of sexual assault.
With the soccer player's statement, ratifying her statement in which she assured that it was not consensual, the public ministry now has the necessary tools to continue with the proceedings and end in a complaint at the National Court.
Hermoso assured that "at no time did the conversation to which Rubiales referred take place and that, much less was his kiss consensual. In the same way, I want to reiterate what I already said at the time, that this fact had not been my fault." The situation caused me a shock due to the context of the celebration and with the passage of time and, after delving a little deeper into those first sensations, I feel the need to report this fact since I consider that no person in any work environment, sporting or social must be a victim of non-consensual behavior".
