The mother of suspended Spanish Football Federation president, Luis Rubiales, is on hunger strike and has locked herself in a church in protest at her son’s treatment, media reports said on Monday.

FIFA provisionally suspended Rubiales for 90 days on Saturday after he was accused of a non-consensual kiss on the lips of player Jenni Hermoso before the trophy presentation at the World Cup final in Sydney.

The 46-year-old’s mother locked herself in a church in the Andalusian city of Motril in the south of the country in protest against what she called the “inhumane and bloody witch-hunt” of her son, state television station RTVE and other Spanish media reported.

According to the TV report, she wants to continue the strike “day and night” until “justice is served.”

Spain’s 1-0 win over England in the final on August 20, the country’s first women’s World Cup triumph, has been overshadowed by the kiss scandal.

Hermoso initially said she had not liked the kiss, and then a federation statement quoted her as playing it down. Since then, she has again vehemently denied it was consensual.

Rubiales initially laughed off the controversy before apologising and reversing course again at an emergency federation meeting on Friday. He had been expected to resign but instead gave a defiant speech, saying “fake feminism” had led to his “social assassination.

Another federation crisis meeting was scheduled for Monday when a Spanish sports tribunal is also expected to discuss his future. 

(dpa/NAN)