Luis de la Fuente and Albert Luque, during an event in Switzerland in January this year.DENIS BALIBOUSE (Portal)
Francisco de Jorge, judge at the National Court, has called four employees of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) as witnesses in the Rubiales case. According to several legal sources, the judge gave the green light to the interrogations of Albert Luque, the head of the selection; Rubén Rivera, marketing manager; Miguel García Caba, Head of Integrity; and Patricia Pérez, press secretary for the women’s team. According to the prosecutor’s complaint, the coach is conducting an ongoing investigation into sexual assault and coercion in connection with the kiss that Luis Rubiales, former president of the organization, gave to player Jennifer Hermoso after winning the World Cup. The date set for the declarations is still unknown.
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This is the judge’s first major initiative after Rubiales declared himself a defendant last Friday when he was ordered to stay 200 meters away from the player and banned from communicating with her. During this appearance, the former RFEF president denied that the kiss was not consensual, as the footballer claimed; and he denied that after the scandal broke, he pressured the athlete to come out and publicly defend her version. A detail that she herself told at the public prosecutor’s office: “In her statement [la jugadora] “She stated that both she and those closest to her were subjected to constant and repeated pressure from Luis Rubiales and his professional environment to justify and condone the facts,” says the State Department’s complaint, which cites the crime at this point of coercion: “Hermoso suffered a situation of harassment that prevented him from developing his life in peace, tranquility and freedom,” he emphasizes.
During the interrogation of Rubiales, the Deputy Prosecutor of the National Court of Justice, Marta Durántez, asked this very question and was interested in the role that several RFEF employees played in carrying out these alleged coercions. As legal sources show, the ministry has put on the table the names of five employees of the association: among them Albert Luque, Rubén Rivera and Jorge Vilda (the latter, former coach of the women’s team). The judge has now called the first two people who allegedly traveled to Ibiza to put Hermoso under pressure as witnesses.
The work of the other two mentioned is also in question. Miguel García Caba, head of Integrity, wrote the internal report on the kiss with Hermoso, which exonerated the former president by ensuring that “there was no conduct that would lead to the conclusion that the striker was coerced, injured or assaulted became”. According to the trade newspaper Relevo, press officer Patricia Pérez was involved in a controversial episode: she showed the player the statement that the RFEF had sent to the media after the kiss to justify Rubiales’ act, which also included some allegedly spoken words by the athlete. Before distributing this note, the association employee told the football player whether she agreed to it, but then asked whether it was mandatory for her. After Pérez answered “yes,” Hermoso told him to “do whatever you want” in an “act of snub,” according to Relevo.
The judge’s move in the Rubiales case also coincides with the fight between the players and the leadership of the RFEF for profound changes in its structure, which has already led to the dismissal of Jorge Vilda and Andreu Camps (general secretary of the RFEF until this week). the association). Beyond the criminal proceedings, the football players want to clarify the responsibilities of those in the organization who pressured Hermoso and urged their teammates to support Rubiales’ version. Two names stand out on their list: Rubén Rivera and Albert Luque for the trip to Ibiza, where the players celebrated the title. But they also name Miguel García Caba and Pablo García Cuervo, director of communications and development, in the spotlight. Supervisor of Patricia Pérez.
At the same time, the National Police has already contacted several media outlets to collect videos “related to the events,” including EL PAÍS and As. The judge ordered pictures of the kiss to be taken “from all angles” “the minutes immediately before and after.” Also “from the celebration in the locker room” and “on the bus of the Spanish women’s soccer team.”
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