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French rugby players charged with rape allowed to leave Argentina
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.” During a hearing in Mendoza, in western Argentina, the prosecution “did not oppose” the prosecution’s recommendation to authorize 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,” it added. “They can leave,” 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 nearly two months with aggravated rape because it was committed in a group. The alleged acts allegedly occurred on the night of July 6 to 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 complainant, 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 in detention for a little over a week, Auradou and Jegou were placed under house arrest in mid-July in Mendoza, under electronic tag, then released on August 12, with a ban on leaving Argentina. The green light given to a return to France is accompanied by “rules”: to report if summoned to the Argentine consulate in France, to be heard virtually “as often as required”, or even to return “to report to Mendoza (1,000 km from Buenos Aires) if requested to do so”. 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 filed by the defense lawyers who accused the magistrates of having demonstrated a “lack of objectivity” and “judged instead of investigating”. They deplored that the players will soon be able to 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 plaintiff reaffirms having been raped and beaten. “They brutalized me and treated me like a piece of meat”, she declared. Her lawyer, Natacha Romano, expressed in a brief statement that she was “not satisfied” with the players’ departure and the terms of the proceedings. 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 coming hours”. Section Paloise (Auradou’s club), considered that “before thinking about what comes next, it is important to let Hugo find his family, his relatives and teammates who are impatient to see him again”.str-tev-pbl/lab/dth
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