The legal battle continues in Argentina. While this Tuesday marks a new decisive day in the Hugo Auradou – Oscar Jegou case, the Mendoza public prosecutor’s office announced on Monday evening its decision to reject the request for the disqualification of the prosecutors filed in the morning by the lawyers of the woman accusing the rugby players of aggravated gang rape. “The alleged hypothesis, that is to say the loss of objectivity of the magistrates involved, has not been proven,” justifies the deputy prosecutor Gonzalo Nazar in a short text sent to the media.
A few hours earlier, Natacha Romano and Mauricio Cardello, the plaintiff’s lawyers, had requested the recusal of Darío Nora, the prosecutor in charge of the investigation, and Daniela Chaler, the magistrate in charge of the Unit for Offenses against Sexual Integrity. If it had been successful, they would have been relieved of the case. In a twenty-page document, the prosecution deplored the “moral violence” and the “lack of objectivity” of the magistrates, guilty, according to them, of an “institutional violation never seen before”. Representing the two players, Analia Rivero had denounced to Le Parisien – Aujourd’hui en France “a stratagem aimed at complicating the work” of the defense and “slowing down the judicial process”.
A key audience from 4:30 p.m.
This Tuesday, a new key hearing is scheduled from 11:30 a.m. (4:30 p.m. in France). Judge Eleonora Arenas must rule on a possible extension of the psychological and psychiatric assessments of Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, requested by the plaintiff’s lawyers. The decision could confirm, or not, the authorization to return to France issued this Monday by the public prosecutor of Mendoza.
VideoAuradou-Jegou case: the request for dismissal filed and judged “within ten days”
“If these assessments need to be further investigated, we will see under what conditions and according to what modalities,” said Martín Ahumada, the spokesperson for the local prosecutor’s office, without commenting on the possibility of continuing the tests remotely. In the event of a refusal by the judge, the second row from Pau and the third row from La Rochelle, aged 21, will be able to return to France under certain conditions from this Tuesday. Still under investigation for aggravated gang rape, the latter are currently in Buenos Aires. They proclaim their innocence, acknowledging a sexual relationship with the alleged victim on the night of 6 to 7 July in Mendoza but denying any form of violence. Last Tuesday, their lawyers filed a request for dismissal which, unless the legal deadline is extended, will be examined by the Argentine courts by 10 September.
