The two French rugby players charged with aggravated rape in Argentina were allowed to leave the country on Tuesday, the courts announced, following the recommendations of the prosecution, for whom the accusation had “lost its initial force”.
At a hearing in Mendoza, western Argentina, the prosecution “did not oppose” the prosecutor’s recommendation to allow the departure of Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, the court said in a statement.
“This resolution therefore remains valid, and they will be able to leave the country from now on,” he added.
“They can go,” Martin Ahumada, spokesman for the provincial justice system, confirmed to AFP, while the hearing shortly afterwards ruled – and rejected – an extension of the psychological assessments already carried out, which the plaintiff’s lawyers had requested.
The players’ lawyers have not confirmed a date or time of departure, but had previously indicated that they would return “as soon as possible” once the green light from the courts was obtained.
A direct flight to Paris leaves Buenos Aires every evening shortly before midnight.
Auradou and Jegou, two 21-year-old internationals, have been charged for almost two months with aggravated rape, as it was committed in a group.
The alleged events occurred on the night of July 6-7 in a hotel room in Mendoza, where the French XV had just won a test match against Argentina, the first selection for the two players.
– Return with “rules” –
The players claim that the sexual relations with the plaintiff, a 39-year-old Argentinian woman they met in a nightclub, were consensual. And they deny any violence, while the plaintiff’s lawyer spoke of “terrible violence”, which saw her client “savagely beaten”.
Initially detained for just over a week, Auradou and Jegou were placed under house arrest in mid-July in Mendoza, under electronic surveillance, then released on August 12, with a ban on leaving Argentina.
The green light given to return to France is accompanied by “rules”: to present themselves if summoned to the Argentine consulate in France, to be heard in virtual mode “as often as required”, or even to return “to present themselves in Mendoza (1,000 km from Buenos Aires) if this is requested of them”.
The players’ lawyers filed a request for dismissal last week, the hearing date for which could, according to their defense, occur in the coming days.
– “Lack of objectivity” –
On Monday, the courts rejected a request for the two prosecutors in charge of the investigation to be disqualified, filed by the defense lawyers, who accused the magistrates of having demonstrated a “lack of objectivity” and “judged instead of investigating.”
They deplored the fact that the players could soon resume in France “the course of their normal lives, while the plaintiff suffers irreparable harm”. After a suicide attempt eleven days ago, she remained hospitalized on Monday, they recalled.
In an excerpt from an interview conducted before Tuesday’s decision for the program Envoyé spécial, which is to be broadcast on September 12, the complainant reiterates that she was raped and beaten. “They brutalized me and treated me like a piece of meat,” she says.
His lawyer, Natacha Romano, said in a brief statement that she was “not satisfied” with the players’ departure and the terms. Among other grievances, she deplored a “derisory” bail of 10 million pesos ($12,300) set for each player.
The French Rugby Federation (FFR) welcomed “with satisfaction” the return to France of the players, a “new step towards the judicial truth of the facts”.
Stade Rochelais, Jegou’s club, said in a statement with the player’s lawyer Céline Astolfe, “relieved and impatient to find Oscar in La Rochelle in the next few hours”. Section Paloise (Auradou’s club), considered that “before thinking about what comes next, it is important to let Hugo find his family, his loved ones and teammates who are impatient to see him again”.
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