This is a case that seemed closed and yet it could well be relaunched. On December 10, the epilogue of a long case for Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jégou seemed written when the Argentine courts dropped the charges against them. Indicted for aggravated gang rape on July 12 near Mendoza, the two 21-year-old athletes remained under house arrest in Argentina for several months before returning to France at the beginning of September. Since then, the two players have resumed training with their respective clubs, but the case was not yet over and a last minute element presented by the plaintiff's lawyers to the Argentine courts lengthened the process.
“The (sexual) act was consensual, no crime was committed and there is no doubt that they are innocent”declared one of the lawyers in charge of the defense of Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, before adding: “Judicial rehabilitation is acquired.” Same story with Antoine Vey, the French rugby players' lawyer, who has already spoken out on the Jégou and Auradou affair point by point in the past. “The Argentine justice system which investigated, which did so on the basis of objective elements which are videos, testimonies, expert opinions, was able to clearly say that the facts of which they were accused did not exist”he declared after the charges against his clients were dropped.
The plaintiff's lawyer announces that her client will appeal
A case that we thought was closed, but this Friday, December 20, information from Argentina could well change the situation. The lawyer for the plaintiff, a 39-year-old mother, announced that his client would pursue legal appeals against the abandonment of the proceedingsin an interview with AFP. Nothing very surprising since Me Natacha Romano immediately announced her intention to appeal the decision rendered by a judge from the Mendoza judicial center where the case was heard. “The instruction is to exhaust all instances” of appeal to the highest courts, she insists to our colleagues.
The next steps for the plaintiff, who suffers from a syndrome that could have a key role in the case, are the Court of Cassation of Mendoza, then the Supreme Court of Mendoza and finally the National Supreme Court. His lawyer said he was ready to refer the case, as a last resort, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) established in Costa Rica.
