Lip-reading in Luis Rubiales’ defence could be excluded from sexual assault case due to alleged perjury | OneFootball

Former President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) Luis Rubiales has given his testimony in the sexual assault and coercion case against him, which is likely to be resolved in the next two weeks. However some of the evidence presented by his defence could be excluded from the trial, with doubts growing about the evidence.

According to Cadena Cope, the sentence is likely to be handed out in the next seven to ten days, should it follow normal procedure. The prosecution are seeking a sentence of 2.5 years in prison for sexual assault and coercion. Their legal expert, Emilio Cortes, notes that the sexual assault charge looks a more likely conviction than the coercion, where the prosecution must prove intimidation and/or a threat of violence.

However one of the key tenets of Rubiales’ defence is also under question now. Relevo note that a lip-reader was brought in to testify that Rubiales can be seen saying ‘Can I give you a peck?’ to Jenni Hermoso just before he kisses her without consent. However the sign-language translator for the lip-reader, who is mute, claimed to be have a sign-translation licence, and to have been hired by Ofilingua, a translation business. However it has now been established that this was not the case, and that Laura Martin was in fact the secretary of the lip-reader Daniel Morillo, who is the president of the Association of Mute People of Granada and Provine (ASOGRA).

Martin or Corillo could potentially face legal action, while the evidence could also be excluded from the trial. Suspicion arose when Morillo confirmed that ‘without margin for doubt’ he could read that Rubiales said ‘a peck’ [piquito], rather than ‘a small kiss or nice’ [besito o bonito]. Professional lip-readers assure that it is impossible to differentiate between such similar words with certainty, while Rubiales had originally testified that he said ‘besito’ rather than ‘piquito’. He later changed the testimony, which matched the lip-reading.