The Argentinian prosecutor’s office in Mendoza recommended on Monday the return to France of Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, who have been under investigation for aggravated rape for nearly two months. However, this measure is subject to a decision by a judge at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
This is important news in the Jegou-Auradou case. Still under investigation for aggravated rape in Argentina, the two players of the French XV saw this Monday the public prosecutor of Mendoza recommend their return to France, a measure however suspended pending the decision of a judge during a hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
The prosecution “authorized the exit of Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou from the country so that they could travel to France,” but their “concrete and effective” exit remains linked to a hearing on Tuesday, and the decision of a magistrate of detentions and liberties, Martin Ahumada, spokesperson for the provincial justice system, told journalists.
The plaintiff’s lawyers have requested the prosecutors’ recusal and are crying foul.
In parallel with this announcement, the plaintiff’s lawyers also filed, also this Monday, a request for the disqualification of the two prosecutors in charge of the investigation for, according to them, “lack of objectivity”.
In their recusal argument, the plaintiff’s lawyers listed a list of grievances against the two prosecutors, Dario Nora and Daniela Chaler, who for them “judge instead of investigating”. Seeming to anticipate an imminent authorization to leave the country for the two players, the lawyers deplore that “they will be rewarded with an authorization to return to their country (…) to return to their normal life, while the plaintiff suffers irreparable harm as a result of the facts denounced”.
Their argument notably mentions 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,” the lawyers denounce.
Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, two 21-year-old internationals, are under investigation for aggravated gang rape. 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 two players claim that the sexual relations with the complainant, a 39-year-old Argentinian, were consensual. And they deny any violence, while the complainant’s lawyer spoke of “terrible violence” inflicted on their client.
