Jan. 25 (UPI) -- A judge on Thursday ruled that former Spanish soccer president Luis Rubiales should go to trial for kissing star player Jennifer Hermoso without consent during the Women's World Cup medal ceremony last year.
Madrid Judge Francisco de Jorge said in his decision that there was evidence that the kiss during the televised ceremony for Spain's gold medal victory in Australia, which took place while Rubiales was one of the world's most powerful soccer executives, was unwanted and not consensual.
De Jorge said prosecutors and Hermoso have 10 days to request a trial for specific charges against Rubiales.
The judge said former Spanish national women's coach Jorge Vilda and two others should also stand trial for allegedly trying to force Hermoso to confirm Rubiales's defense that the kiss was consensual.
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Prosecutors had advanced sexual assault and coercion counts against Rubiales during an earlier hearing, which could land him in prison for up to four years along with fines.
Rubiales was forced out as president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation over the incident and banned by FIFA, the governing body for world soccer.
Hermoso had long disputed Rubiales' version of the medal stand incident, testifying earlier this month at a hearing in front of de Jorge that the kiss was "unexpected and at no time consensual."
"No person, in any work, sports or social environment, should be a victim of this type of non-consensual behavior," Hermoso said in court earlier. "I felt vulnerable and the victim of an aggression, an impulsive, sexist act, out of place and without any consent on my part. Simply put, I was not respected."
She filed a criminal complaint against Rubiales for the kiss and the pressure campaign to get her to support Spain's soccer chief.
