Luis Rubiales news LIVE: Police investigate president for alleged sexual assault

• Luis Rubiales’ mother locked herself in the Divina Pastora church just outside Malaga and started an “indefinite, day and night” hunger strike until “justice is served” after claiming her son was the victimn of a “inhumane witch-hunt”.
• Rubiales’ cousin Vanesa Ruiz Bejar, spoke outside the church, saying: “There’s a campaign of harassment occurring that is very unfair. Luis’ mum who is a very religious person has sought refuge in God and started a hunger strike. We are all suffering a lot because of what’s happened to Luis which doesn’t seem at all fair to us.”
• The Spanish Football Federation (Rfef) are holding an “extraordinary and urgent” meeting at 3pm (BST) to determine the next steps in regards to Rubiales but it is unclear whether anything will come from it after the federation backed Luis Rubiales’ defence last week.
• The Rfef have also contacted Uefa asking them to suspend their own organisation due to third party involvement from the Spanish government who are seeking measures to remove Rubiales as president. The request would see Spanish football teams such as Real Madrid and Barcelona unable to feature in Uefa competition.
• Uefa have rejected the request.
• Spanish prosecutors open pre-trial enquiries and investigate whether Rubiales can be found guilty of sexual assault.

Uefa will take no action on an astonishing request by the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) to be expelled – and thus have its clubs including Real Madrid and Barcelona kicked out of European competitions like the Champions League – over what the RFEF claims is government interference on the Luis Rubiales crisis, as the federation president now faces an investigation from the Spanish Prosecutors Office for sexual assault.

In other developments of a story that even Uefa officials were describing as “absurd” and “stranger by the moment”, Rubiales’ mother Angeles Bejar locked herself in a church to go on hunger strike, with police and doctors eventually intervening. Such details have stunned even the most experienced people in football, but it is the request to the European body that is being seen as the most significant, given it sums up how surreal the story has become.

With Rubiales facing a series of official complaints and a government process that could yet see him banned from sport in Spain for two to 15 years – to go with his current 90-day suspension from Fifa – the federation sent a request to Uefa to be expelled for breaking Uefa’s own statutes on state interference.

Prosecutors from Spain’s top criminal court announced today they believe the facts in the case against Luis Rubiales may constitute an offence of sexual harassment.

The prosecutors office said: “It was agreed to approach Jenni Hermoso so as to inform her of her rights as a possible victim of the offence of sexual harassment… and to offer her the opportunity should she wish within the next 15 days to file a complaint with the Prosecutors Office of the Spanish High Court.”

It said it opened pretrial enquiries because of “public statements made by Jenni Hermoso that the sexual act she experienced and was carried out by Mr Rubiales was non-consensual”.

Hermoso released a statement on Friday to explain her side of the incident and now has 15 days to formalise the complaint with the prosecutors office.

The Spanish Football Federation called an “extraordinary and urgent” meeting into the situation with Luis Rubiales yesterday.

Rubiales was widely expected to resign at a seperate meeting on Friday but instead made a bizarre and defiant speech, claiming he was the victim of a witch-hunt and insisted the kiss with Jenni Hermoso was consensual.

The federation’s interim president Pedro Rocha has called today’s meeting in Madrid “to evaluate the situation in which the federation finds itself” and look at “the decisions or actions to be taken.”

An internal investigation is also under way after the federation’s sexual violence protocol was activated.

Maria Dolores Martinez Madrona, the protocol’s protection delegate who is conducting the investigation, said: “we demand the utmost respect for the right to privacy and dignity of every person involved”.

That meeting should be taking place this afternoon but it is unclear whether any of the discussions will be made public.

The mother of the Spanish soccer federation president has started a hunger strike in a church in southern Spain in defense of her son, who is under fire for kissing a player during the recent Women’s World Cup awards ceremony.

Ángeles Béjar, mother of suspended federation president Luis Rubiales, told the state news agency EFE she would remain on hunger strike “night and day” until a solution is found to “the bloody and inhumane hounding” of her son.

Speaking outside the church in the southern town of Motril, Rubiales’ cousin, Vanessa Ruiz, joined his mother in calling on the player, Jenni Hermoso, to “tell the truth.” She said the family was suffering greatly and she described Rubiales as “a beautiful person.”

Spanish prosecutors at the top criminal court in the country have opened a preliminary investigation into Luis Rubiales’ actions to determine whether his kiss on Jenni Hermoso after the Women’s World Cup final in Sydney constitutes a crime of sexual assault.

The investigation is looking into whether Rubiales, the president of the country’s football federation, could be charged with committing an act of sexual aggression on Hermoso.

The prosecutors office had received six complaints over Rubiales’ conduct but had waited for the player to make an official complaint.

That came in the form of a statement Hermoso released Friday saying that she felt ‘vulnerable’ and at no point ‘consented to the kiss’ with Rubiales.

Opposition has steadily grown in response to Rubiales’ conduct and his strident defence of it. The Rfef has found itself under increasing pressure to take action with the federation currently in an emergency meeting to discuss the issue.

The mother of Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales is on hunger strike over the “inhuman” treatment of her son, according to reports in Spain.

The 46-year-old grabbed his crotch in the stadium’s VIP area in celebration of Spain’s win over England, when he was stood metres away from Spain’s Queen Letizia and her teenage daughter.

He then kissed Spain midfielder Jenni Hermoso on the lips during the trophy and medals presentation, something she says was done without her consent.

The latest development in this story concerns Luis Rubiales’ mother who has reportedly locked herself in a church and is going on a hunger strike in order to stop the ‘inhumane’ treatment of her son according to the Daily Mail.

Angeles Bejar has demanded an end to the ‘inhumane witch-hunt’ on Rubiales after he kissed Spanish midfielder Jenni Hermoso on the lips following their Women’s World Cup triumph.

Bejar has locked herself in the Divina Pastora church and started an ‘indefinite, day and night’ hunger strike until ‘justice is served.’

As reported by Marca, Luis Rubiales’ cousin Vanesa Ruiz Bejar, spoke on behalf of the family, saying: “My name is Vanesa Ruiz Bejar and I’m Luis Rubiales’ cousin. There’s a campaign of harassment occurring that is very unfair. Luis’ mum who is a very religious person has sought refuge in God and started a hunger strike.

“She doesn’t want to come out of the church. We are all suffering a lot because of what’s happened to Luis which doesn’t seem at all fair to us.

“He’s been condemned already without being tried. It’s not normal. We won’t to be left alone. The facts speak for them, there are videos, there are audio recordings.”

About Angeles Bejar she added: “She’s an elderly lady whose health is very delicate and she’s suffering a lot. She’s crying all time and is not able to sleep and is not eating.

“The person that spends five minutes with Luis knows he’s a really good person with a big heart. He’s a very noble person.”

Bejar also spoke directly to Jenni Hermoso saying: “Jenni, say the truth. Why has she changed her version three times? We have suffered a lot, we have had to leave our homes because of the harassment we’re suffering.

“We won’t to be left alone and see justice done and we want this woman to tell the truth. Jenni, ‘tell the truth!”

The meeting is not being shown live so there’ll be a wait to hear if any action is being taken against Luis Rubiales. An internal investigation is also under way after the federation’s sexual violence protocol was activated yesterday.

In what marked the first forceful action against Rubiales, the Spanish FA president was on provisionally suspended for 90 days by Fifa from “all football-related activities at national and international level” on Saturday.

He has also been ordered not to contact or to attempt to contact Jenni Hermoso or her family for the duration of his suspension.

The acting second deputy prime minister of Spain, and its labour minister, Yolanda Diaz, and Amanda Guiterrez, president of the women’s football union Futpro held a joint news conference this afternoon after meeting to discuss the World Cup kiss scandal

Here’s what they had to say:

Diaz says Luis Rubiales acted with “sexual aggression” and that his actions have “been spread throughout the world” but are not “representative of our country”,

“Spanish society is a profoundly feminist and avant-garde,” she added.

“It’s certainly very strange that the whole of Spain should be witnessing this particular scene.”