Spain’s top criminal court has opened a preliminary investigation into the country’s football federation president Luis Rubiales after he kissed player Jenni Hermoso on the lips.
The prosecutors are looking into whether the incident amounts to a crime of sexual assault.
Rubiales, 46, has been widely criticised after the incident following Spain’s Women’s World Cup final win.
Hermoso, 33, said the kiss was not consensual.
Rubiales was suspended on Saturday by world football’s governing body Fifa.
The previous day, Rubiales had insisted he would not resign.
The court said it was opening the investigation in light of the “unequivocal nature” of Hermoso’s statements, saying it was necessary “to determine their legal significance”.
“Given the public statements made by Jennifer Hermoso, the sexual act she was subjected to by (Luis) Rubiales was not consensual,” a statement said
Meanwhile the mother of the spanish football chief has locked herself inside a church and announced a hunger strike in protest at her son’s “inhumane treatment” over his unsolicited kiss,
Angeles Bejar said her strike would last “until a solution is found to the inhumane and bloody hunt they are carrying out against my son with something he does not deserve”, according to EFE news agency.
According to EFE, Bejar stayed inside the parish church of Divina Pastora in Rubiales’ hometown in southern Spain, Motril, with her sister after the parish priest left.
She asked Hermoso to tell the truth and “stick to the version she gave at the beginning”, EFE added.
“There is no sexual abuse since there is consent on both sides, as the images prove,” Bejar told EFE as she questioned “why they’re taking it out on him” and what “is behind this whole story”.
“My son is incapable of hurting anyone,” Bejar said.
Rubiales, 46, has been defiant over the kiss - which has been condemned as unwanted by Hermoso, her team mates and the Spanish government - arguing it was consensual.
At a federation meeting on Friday where he had been widely expected to step down, Rubiales instead refused to quit, seeking to defend his behaviour and calling the kiss “spontaneous, mutual, euphoric and consensual”.
The Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) has issued a statement for him, saying Rubiales “will defend himself legally in the competent bodies” to prove “his complete innocence”.
Hermoso said she did not consent to the kiss and felt “vulnerable and the victim of an aggression”.
