Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou will have to wait a few more hours before knowing the fate reserved for them. While the dismissal hearing was held this Monday, no decision will be made.
The debates began at 9:30 a.m. this morning (1:30 p.m. in France) and the prosecution presented its arguments for three hours, but the hearing will, as confirmed by the prosecution, continue this Tuesday, from 9 a.m. (13 hours in France), with the plaintiff's lawyers.
However, the outcome is no longer in any real doubt. At the beginning of October, the local prosecutor's office requested that the charges be dropped, a month after having authorized the players to return to France, considering that “the initial accusation (had) lost its force” as the investigation progressed. “I am very optimistic,” confided Rafael Cuneo Libarona, the players’ representative, this Sunday, on the eve of the dismissal hearing.
According to the Argentine Penal Code, a dismissal of the case would “definitively and irrevocably” close the judicial process (article 335) and would mean, in the case of a total abandonment of the charges, “the dismissal of the case without further action” (article 338 ). Or the absolute exoneration of the accused. In this case, however, the complainant would have three days to appeal, which Natacha Romano, one of her counsel, intends to do, as has already been announced on several occasions.
Arrested on July 8 in Buenos Aires, Pau second line Hugo Auradou and La Rochelle third line Oscar Jegou, both aged 21, have continued to proclaim their innocence since the start of this resounding affair. The two French players, who returned to the Top 14 in recent weeks, admitted to a consensual sexual relationship with the complainant, met in a nightclub, but have always categorically denied any form of violence.
