Luis Rubiales seeks testimony from daughters and lip reader in ‘kissgate’ trial

‘Kissgate’ scandal former Spanish FA boss Luis Rubiales wants his daughters and a lip reader to testify on his behalf at his upcoming sex assault trial.

The 46-year-old father-of-three has included his two eldest daughters on the list of witnesses he intends calling to the stand in a bid to avoid conviction and a possible two-and-a-half year prison sentence.

Rubiales named them in his bid to shame women critics he dubbed ‘false feminists’ in the fallout from the kiss he gave footballer Jenni Hermoso on the lips at the end of Spain’s Women’s World Cup final win against England last August in Sydney.

He said at a passionate speech at a Spanish FA extraordinary general assembly as he vowed to stay on before resigning days later that Lucia, Ana and Elena, his daughters with ex-wife Maria Manuela Delicado Vega, were ‘true feminists.’

Rubiales has likened the kiss he gave Jenni, which he has described as a ‘little peck’, to one he would give his children and insisted it happened during a moment of euphoria.

He wants Lucia and Ana to give evidence because they were at the Women’s World Cup Final and can testify about what happened on the plane back to Spain the footballers travelled on.

Rubiales claimed in an interview with Spanish media in January his daughters heard Jenni say the kiss was not a big deal after the event and was simply a ‘little peck between two friends’ and have subsequently told him ‘everyone knows she is lying.’

His defence lawyer Olga Tubau also wants an expert lip reader to give evidence about the conversation between the former Spanish FA chief and Hermoso seconds before the kiss.

Rubiales is claiming he asked Jenni before locking lips: ‘Can I give you a little kiss?’ after she told him at the medal ceremony: ‘We won this World Cup thanks to you.’

Spanish prosecutors announced at the end of March they were seeking a two and a half year prison sentence for Rubiales over ‘Kissgate.’

They said they were seeking a one-year jail term for a sexual assault charge and a separate one-year six month prison sentence for coercion linked to his alleged attempts to get Jenni to speak out in his defence over the ‘unwanted’ kiss he gave her.

They also said in a pre-trial indictment they wanted him to pay the footballer 100,000 euros (£85,000) if he is convicted at trial.

Madrid-based judge Francisco de Jorge paved the way for Rubiales to be tried earlier this year after recommending he be put in the dock.

He said his long-running probe had uncovered ‘solid evidence’ pointing to the potential illegality of the kiss.

Mr de Jorge, who has already quizzed the former football boss and his alleged victim separately in closed sessions at Spain’s centralised Audiencia Nacional court, said in a five-page ruling made public in January: ‘The investigation has revealed the existence of solid evidence the kiss Luis Manuel Rubiales Bejar gave the player Jennifer Hermoso was not consensual and was a unilateral and surprise initiative on his part.

‘Whether there was no any erotic intention or it was a result of the state of euphoria and excitement experienced as a consequence of the extraordinary sporting triumph preceding it is something that should be valued in a public trial.’

He said he had concluded Hermoso had been left ‘bewildered and surprised’ by the ‘unexpected’ kiss and ‘didn’t have time to react’ after Rubiales grabbed her by the head with both hands and locked lips with her at the awards ceremony in front of millions of TV viewers watching live.

He also proposed former Spain’s World Cup women’s team manager Jorge Vilda, ex-men’s team director Albert Luque and former Spanish FA marketing director Ruben Rivera should face trial.

Mr de Jorge said in his written ruling he believed there was enough evidence to proceed with a formal accusation against all three men for their ‘concerted action’, agreed with Rubiales, to try to ‘break Jennifer Hermoso’s will and get her to agree to record a video saying the kiss had been consensual’ as the controversy surrounding the former Spanish FA chief’s action exploded.

He accused Rubiales of pressuring Jenni to publicly support him on the plane back from Sydney in Australia before asking Vilda to speak to her brother and try to convince her to record a video saying the kiss was consensual.

He went on to detail how his investigation had discovered evidence pointing to Vilda subsequently telling the footballer’s sibling her failure to assist with the video would have ‘negative consequences’ for her.

Mr de Jorge also outlined how Ruben Rivera asked Jenni again to participate in a video ‘exonerating’ Rubiales when they got back to Spain as part of repeated attempts to get her to speak out about the kiss in a way that was beneficial to the divorced father-of-three.

And he accused Albert Luque of turning up unannounced at a hotel Jennifer was in to convince her to participate in the video despite her rejecting Rivera’s requests to talk to him about backing Rubiales publicly.

He concluded in his bombshell ruling: ‘The pressure the player was submitted to created in Jennifer Hermoso a situation of anxiety and intense stress.

Public prosecutors are seeking prison sentences of one year and six months for Vilda, Luque and Rivera if convicted of coercion.

No date for the men’s trial in Madrid has yet been set.

Hermoso, 34, who plays her club football for Mexican side Tigres, sparked the court investigation by filing a complaint against Rubiales last September.

She accused him of kissing her without consent after the Women’s World Cup final finished and described it as a sexist act which left her feeling vulnerable.

Mr de Jorge banned him from going within 200 metres of Hermoso or making any contact with her as part of a restraining order after questioning him in court a week after the player lodged her complaint.

The entire investigation so far including the court quizzes have taken place behind-closed-doors as is normal in Spain where only trials are held in public.

Defiant Rubiales promised to ‘defend his innocence’ after announcing on September 10 last year he was quitting as Spanish FA president.

He tweeted as his decision to resign was made public: ‘I will defend my honourability. I will defend my innocence.

‘I have faith in the future. I have faith in the truth. Thanks to everybody.’

He finished his tweet by posting a photo of the Spanish flag.

Rubiales, who had apologised for grabbing his crotch during the post-final World Cup celebrations in front of Spain’s Queen Letizia and her 16-year-old daughter, had said in a lengthy statement before announcing his decision to quit: ‘The spontaneity and happiness of the historic moment led us to carry out a mutual and consensual act, a product of great enthusiasm.

‘At no time was there any aggression, indeed, there was not even the slightest discomfort, but an overflowing joy in both of us.’

Rubiales’ 72-year-old mum Angeles Bejar went on hunger strike at a church in her son’s hometown of Motril near Granada for two days at the end of last August before being rushed to hospital 48 hours into her protest.

She said at the time she had launched it to get Jenni to ‘tell the truth’ about the kiss.

Speaking from the inside of the church before falling ill, she said: ‘I just want the truth to be told.

‘She knows my son is very honest. If she tells the truth everything will be fixed.’

Referring to Rubiales’ infamous kiss, she added: ‘It was an anecdote, as she herself said, and look how far it’s gone.

‘She should have a conscience and act according to it.

‘My son is very worried and has asked me not to continue, to stop, but I will be here until I drop and my body can continue.’

Rubiales is at the centre of a separate corruption probe linked to alleged financial irregularities during his time as head of the Spanish FA.

He was arrested last month after flying back from the Dominican Republic but released on bail by police ahead of a court appearance in front of a judge.

Investigating magistrate Delia Rodrigo confirmed he could remain on bail but had to ask for permission to leave Spain and sign on once a month at court after quizzing him at the end of April as part of an ongoing probe.

Rubiales has said of the daughters who could now come to his rescue in court: ‘They are very strong, stronger than me.

‘I consider myself to be a tough guy, but when it comes to my daughters it’s not normal.’

He said at last August’s Spanish FA extraordinary general assembly, in a direct attack on the likes of Spain’s then-Equality Minister Irene Montero, when he was still insisting he would never resign: ‘I want to say looking at my three daughters who are over there that today they have to learn a lesson about what equality is.

‘Equality is not differentiating when there is an opinion between what a man says and what a woman says. You have to differentiate between truth and lies, and I am telling the truth.

‘Daughters, learn it, it is a life lesson. You are real feminists, not the false feminism that is out there.

This false feminism does not seek justice, truth, it does not care about people.’

He told Spanish news website El Espanol in an interview in January: ‘My daughters love me and I know they are proud of me, just as I’m proud of them.

‘They’re normal girls who go to university and school and see that the majority of people can’t believe what’s happened and don’t believe Jenni.

‘That brings them some comfort and they say to me, “Look daddy”. Everyone knows that person is lying.’