While their lawyers have filed a request for dismissal, Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou will travel to the Argentine capital on Tuesday, August 27.
The two French rugby players charged with aggravated rape in Argentina since the beginning of July will leave Mendoza (west) this Tuesday afternoon, August 27, where they have been since the beginning of July, for the capital Buenos Aires, their lawyers have indicated.
Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, who have recovered their passports but remain banned from leaving Argentina, were due to arrive in Buenos Aires this afternoon, one of their lawyers, Rafael Cuneo Libarona, told AFP.
“They left to be more peaceful (…) they cannot be in a province where their photo has been published,” Me Hnatow told Radio Mitre from Mendoza airport. In Buenos Aires “friends and family are waiting for them,” and “if they have to participate in a hearing (of review) of dismissal, they will do so in virtual mode.”
The players’ Argentine lawyers have recalled that since their release on August 12 by the prosecution – after almost a month under house arrest – “they are free to go wherever they want in Argentina.”
A request for dismissal
Their lawyers filed a request for dismissal on Tuesday, and a hearing is scheduled for Friday, in which the players could, if necessary, participate virtually.
“The request for dismissal has been filed, the decision now lies with the courts, and we will be waiting” for the prosecution’s submissions, before a subsequent decision by the judge, German Hnatow, one of Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou’s defenders, told journalists at the Mendoza judicial center (west).
Following the request for dismissal filed on Tuesday, Mr. Hnatow specified that a next hearing has been set for Friday.
At this hearing, the prosecution should make its position known and ask the judge for a hearing to examine the request for dismissal, Martin Ahumada, spokesman for the provincial justice system of Mendoza, told AFP.
Mr. Hnatow did not wish to give any indication of a likely time frame for these steps and a decision by the judge.
The request for dismissal was expected from the defense, convinced that the prosecution’s position has been weakened in recent weeks.
