The kiss at the Aug. 20 medal ceremony, which Hermoso has said was not consensual, ignited protests in Spain and around the world.
The former president of Spain’s soccer federation Luis Rubiales was hit with a restraining order in court Friday over a complaint of sexual assault following his allegedly nonconsensual kiss with player Jenni Hermoso at the Women’s World Cup final in Australia last month.
Rubiales also faces a charge of coercion after Hermoso alleged she and her relatives were pressured by Rubiales and his office to say that she approved of the kiss.
Rubiales pleaded not guilty to the charges in front of Judge Francisco de Jorge in Spain’s National Court.
The judge rejected a request by the prosecution that Rubiales should report to court every two weeks, but he ordered the former soccer federation president from contacting or coming within 200 meters of Hermoso.
“We maintain what we’ve said from the beginning. It was a nonconsensual kiss,” Hermoso’s lawyer Carla Vall i Duran told reporters, according to ESPN. “Thanks to the [images of the kiss], the entire world, the entire country, has been able to observe there was no type of consent.
