On December 10, Argentine justice dismissed the case for the benefit of two 21-year-old French internationals, Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, accused of aggravated rape committed in a meeting by a woman during an alcoholic evening in Mendoza (north-west). ), on the night of July 6 to 7 after a match of the XV of France against Argentina.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Me Natacha Romano, immediately announced her intention to appeal the decision rendered by a judge at the Mendoza judicial center where the case was heard. According to Me Romano, justice has authorized the filing of the appeal, which will take place in the coming days. “The instruction (from her client, editor’s note) is to exhaust all instances” of appeal to the highest courts.
The next steps are the Court of Cassation of Mendoza, then the Supreme Court of Mendoza and finally the National Supreme Court. The lawyer said she was ready to refer, as a last resort, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) established in Costa Rica. The 39-year-old complainant says she was attacked, after a meeting in a nightclub, in the hotel where members of the French rugby team were staying.
The judge who dismissed the case considered that “the act investigated did not constitute an offense“, therefore that there had been no rape. For Mr. Romano, all the evidence”should be fully evaluated“. “We have evidence awaiting production that had even been ordered and, surprisingly, the prosecutor did not want to produce it“, adds the lawyer.
Origin of bruises
It refers to the origin of the bruises that the plaintiff presented and which were confirmed by the courts. While the players’ defense argued that the complainant suffered from a hematological disease which made her prone to bruising, the woman denies that this is the origin of the marks she presented and attributes them to blows suffered by her alleged attackers.
“The fundamental proof was the testimony of the hematologist, who signed the report (…) where he says that he excludes that our client suffers from any illness which justifies these atrocious injuries, of which there are fifteen“, maintains Natacha Romano. She deplores that the report was rejected by the investigating magistrate then by the judge who dismissed the case.
Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou.
Credit: Getty Images
Another point motivating the appeal: the refusal to produce an ocular inspection of the room where the alleged events took place, as well as sound tests. “There were repeated contradictions between the witnesses they (the defense) presented to be able to define whether our client’s cries for help had been heard“, explains the lawyer.
Regarding the possibility for players to file a civil complaint against their accuser for defamation, Me Romano believes that “they are the defamers“, recalling that the woman’s name and first name were made public. Her client, on the contrary, “made the decision to denounce the facts in court and not in front of the cameras“.
This threat of defamation “is nothing more than psychological pressure for the complainant not to appeal but that will not happen“. Auradou and Jegou, whose main lawyer is Rafael Cúneo Libarona, brother of the current Argentine Minister of Justice, Mariano Cúneo Libarona, have always affirmed that the sexual intercourse was consensual.
They were placed in pre-trial detention then placed under house arrest in Mendoza until the courts released them in mid-August and authorized them to return to France at the beginning of September. Since then, they have played again with their club in Pau and La Rochelle.
