The plaintiff’s lawyers filed a request on Monday, September 1, for “formal recusal» prosecutors in charge of the rape investigation targeting Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, two players from the French rugby union team arrested on July 9 in Argentina. Their request, made to the judicial center of Mendoza, in the west of the country, comes at a time when a decision on the authorization for the two 21-year-old men to leave the South American country is expected very soon. The request for recusal is justified, in the eyes of its authors, by the “lack of objectivity” reproached the two prosecutors, Dario Nora and Daniela Chaler.
The prosecutors “judge instead of investigating” accuse the lawyers in their argument. Seeming to anticipate a decision in favor of an exit from Argentina for the two players, they deplore that the athletes “will be rewarded with permission to return to their country […] returning to their normal lives, while the complainant suffers irreparable harm as a result of the facts reported” The argument refers in particular to the plaintiff’s suicide attempt ten days ago and the fact that she remains hospitalized to this day. Allowing the players to leave Argentina at this stage would represent “an institutional scandal never seen before“, insist the lawyers, especially since the final procedural acts, in particular psychological assessments, still need to be validated.
And indeed, shortly after the filing of this request, the Mendoza prosecutor’s office announced that it “authorized the exit from the country, so that they could travel to France” to Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou. But their exit “concrete and effective” remains linked to a hearing on Tuesday, and the decision of a magistrate of detentions and liberties, indicated to journalists Martin Ahumada, spokesman for the provincial justice.
“Delaying tactic,” according to the defense
Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou are charged with aggravated rape because they were in a group and pending the examination of a request for dismissal. They are free but under judicial supervision. The alleged events 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 two players claim that the sexual relations with the complainant, a 39-year-old Argentinian, were consensual. And they deny any violence, when the complainant’s lawyer mentioned “terrible violence” exercised on their client. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday to examine the possibility of leaving the national territory.
It was not immediately clear what effect the challenge request – which will have to be examined by the courts – would have on the timeframe for a decision on whether Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou can return to France. No date has yet been set for a hearing to review the request for dismissal, filed last Tuesday by the players’ lawyers, who believe the prosecution’s position has weakened in recent weeks. On Monday, the players’ French lawyer, Antoine Vey, denounced in the challenge request “yet another delaying tactic, [qui] does not change the phase of the file in any way». «We are still waiting for the players to return to France in the next few hours.” he added.
