Valencia Football Club has decided to make things easier for Rafa Mir after its player was investigated for alleged sexual assault He was due to testify this Tuesday at Court number eight in Llíria, a municipality in the Valencian Community. The team has decided to release him from training this week. So that he can relax after the ‘scare’…?
But there is another version of the club’s immediate decision that I stopped training this Thursday and Fridays, which have been the norm for the football striker up to now. According to ‘Marca’, the club could be taking advantage of the rest of the week and the weekend – two days that all the players have free because there is no league at the moment – to study in detail the unpleasant event that they have to deal with and not delegate to Rubén Baraja, the technical director, what to do with the athlete.
Investigated for ‘crime of sexual assault with carnal access’
An assessment that will be made after knowing all the data of the investigation carried out, since the Valencian football club requests to have access to the complete order of the magistrate of First Instance and Instruction number eight of Llíria that has allowed Mir, after his first statement, the provisional release with precautionary measures.
But what exactly is the crime for which he has been called to testify? The matter is sensitive and serious enough not to define exhaustively what he is accused of. The man from Cartagena continues to be investigated for a crime of sexual assault with carnal access under article 179 of the Penal Code, punishable by 4 to 12 years in prison.
No football club in our country’s First Division would want to be in Valencia’s shoes. The decision they want to make is a dilemma, and if they fail, public opinion will also fall on them. A difficult situation. On the one hand, the episode experienced this Wednesday in Llíria on leaving the courts could indirectly affect the club. team imagebut on the other hand they really do not have a single legal argument to throw Rafa out on the street or suspend him from employment and pay for a period of time.
More than enough reason for the club led by its president Lay Hoon to want to see Rafa Mir’s car, which could be conclusive if we take into account the precautionary measures imposed. There are three: Prohibition of communication and approach within 500 metres of the accusers, he will have to go to court every week to sign in and will not be able to leave Spanish territory. His passport has already been withdrawn.
Does any member of the club know what really happened?
Without this judicial document, the club’s margin of reaction is minimal. At the moment, at most they could only ‘punish’ him with a symbolic fine for having missed training on Tuesday and Wednesday due to being arrested at the police station, or also for his inappropriate behavior during the early hours of last Saturday and Sunday. But nothing more.
Does one or more members of the club have valuable information of what happened that night? If so, we will soon know, because the Valencia statement on the Rafa Mir case says in one of its parts this: “In the absence of further details” they want to collaborate “in everything that justice may require.”
It was consensual, according to Mir’s defense
The argument for the Spanish striker’s defense is clear and direct. His lawyers maintain that the sexual relations were voluntary and agreed upon by the parties. For the moment Mir has not made a public statement about this, but according to ‘La Sexta’ he did say the following upon leaving the court on Tuesday: “I’m fine. I’ll speak when it’s time. You already know that I have no problem speaking.”
If Rafa is consistent with what he promises, he will at some point declare to the media the same thing that his lawyers have already done and what he said in court on Wednesday. It would be fair, too, since his case already occupies the top positions of public interest in Spanish society.
Reactions from Pedro Sánchez’s government
Because, for example, the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondohas already publicly stated: “If this were to happen and be confirmed, there would be zero tolerance for any sexual assault or violence, including in the sporting arena, regardless of who commits this type of assault. I think we need to be very firm,” the newspaper ‘Levante’ reports.
His statements, replicated by this Levantine digital newspaper and dozens of media outlets, came after the meeting that he coincidentally also held on Tuesday – the day of the arrest – with David Aganzopresident of the Spanish Footballers’ Association (AFE). “It is essential that we all work together to eradicate all sexist attitudes, all violent attitudes, all xenophobic attitudes from football,” he also said.
016 is the phone number in Spain of information, legal advice and psychosocial care immediately, anonymously and confidentially to the victims of gender violence.
