The investigation into the alleged rape of a 39-year-old Argentinian woman by two French rugby players is coming to an end. The review of the dismissal of the case could therefore take place as early as next week, according to judicial sources, while an expert report appeared to weaken the complainant’s position.
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The prosecution, after validating a final act on Tuesday – a psychiatric and psychological expert report on the complainant – could declare the investigation closed on Friday, and set a date for examining the request for dismissal, according to concordant sources in Mendoza. This dismissal hearing should take place within 5 to 10 days, Rafael Cuneo Libarona, one of the players’ Argentinian lawyers, estimated for AFP.
The expert report on the complainant, carried out by experts appointed by the public prosecutor’s office and to which AFP had access, noted “a series of inconsistencies and contradictions (…) which generally paint an unlikely story”. The two co-author practitioners noted “contradictory and inconsistent content when explaining the situations she was confronted with”.
Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou are charged with aggravated gang rape, alleged to have occurred on the night of July 6-7 in a hotel room in Mendoza (west), where the French XV had just played a match against Argentina.
The players have maintained from the beginning that the sexual relations with the complainant, whom they met in a nightclub, were consensual. Initially detained and then placed under house arrest, they were released in mid-August, then allowed to leave Argentina pending the end of the investigation. They returned to France on September 4.
“Obvious external influences”
The expert report also undermines the complainant’s spontaneity, noting a “permeability to what others say”, a “story that was neither free nor spontaneous (…) and tinged with obvious external influences, notably from her friend”, with whom she had a “laughing” conversation via audio messages shortly after the events.
She acknowledged that she would not have filed a complaint if her friend had not convinced her that she had been the victim of sexual assault, the experts note, noting that her mother also helped convince her.
Describing a personality “limited in her introspection (…) reluctant to accept the consequences of her actions”, the expert report does not exclude in any way that the complainant “may be experiencing emotional distress, experiencing what happened as traumatic”. Nevertheless, “in the strict sense”, she “does not present clinical symptoms of post-traumatic stress caused by what she is reporting”.
The plaintiff’s lawyer, Natacha Romano, did not respond to AFP’s requests for comment.
