There is something new in the Hugo Oradou – Oscar Jegou affair.
The facts date back to July 7 when Oscar Jégou and Hugo Auradou were indicted for “violent gang rape”. According to the complainant, they took place during an evening following a victory for the French team against the Pumas. According to information from Parisian This Tuesday, November 19, Me Natacha Romano, the plaintiff's lawyer, made a rather unexpected request. The newspaper explains that she filed a formal request for recusal of the judge in charge of the case, Eleonora Arenas.
According to the plaintiff's lawyer, there would be a “latent risk of lack of impartiality” on the part of the judge. In a seven-page document, consulted by the media, there are numerous explanations concerning this request. It is indicated that she refused to take into consideration new evidence, “of vital importance” including testimonies from medical experts. According to the complainant's lawyer, these could have advanced the investigation. An appeal which will be examined this Friday, November 22 at the judicial center of Mendoza. The newspaper explains that it has “very little chance of success”.
XV of France: towards progress in the matter?
The dismissal hearing was set for Monday, November 25 and the newspaper states: this appeal should be without consequences.
“This is a huge legal absurdity,” said Rafael Cueno Libarona, the lawyer for the Argentine players. For his part, he is preparing a file to defend the work of Eleonora Arenas who, according to him, would have done what was asked of her. Will the affair take a new turn or simply continue as planned? At the beginning of September, it was the Argentine justice system which requested recusal, targeting the prosecutors in charge of the case.
This had been refused.
On the side of Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, the two players, aged 21, have proclaimed their innocence from the start, however recognizing a consensual sexual relationship with the alleged victim. They denied any form of violence during this act. As a reminder, during her testimony, the complainant claimed to have been mistreated by the players, in particular Hugo Auradou. “So he grabbed my neck. He put me on the bed, he stripped me like a brute and he dragged me out of bed while I was naked,” she explained.
XV of France: a very moving testimony
Still according to the complainant, the rugby players were very violent with her, in particular Hugo Auradou.
“He picked me up by the neck. So much so that I no longer had any oxygen,” she continued before adding that she would have tried to make him react by slapping him. “Instead of stopping him, this slap made him continue,”
she declared. His version was contested by those mainly concerned but also by Maître Antoine Vey, their lawyer. Concerning the traces mentioned on the body of the complainant, the forensic expert would have made very different comments.
“A forensic expert said, reading the complainant's statement, that she described facts that could not have happened,” he declared. Oscar Jegou and Hugo Ouradou remain presumed innocent of the charges against them.
