The debates in the examination of the dismissal of the case in the case of Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou continue this Tuesday at the judicial center of Mendoza, in Argentina, where the two French rugby players were charged with aggravated rape in July. A file marked by numerous postponements.
On Monday, the prosecution argued for almost three hours for a dismissal of the case, that is to say the abandonment of the proceedings, as it had announced in October at the end of the investigation. The players’ lawyer Rafael Cuneo Libarona argued along the same lines for more than an hour.
This second day must be devoted to the complainant, a 39-year-old Argentinian. Me Natacha Romano, lawyer for the plaintiff, will in turn speak at length, after which the players’ defense “will have the right to respond and have the last word”, she recalled.
Judge Eleonora Arenas presiding over the hearing could make her decision immediately, but also put it under advisement within a few days, lawyers estimated.
A “victim accused of lying”
Me Cuneo Libarona praised on Monday a “very, very good” presentation by the prosecution at the end of an “extremely productive investigation”: 18 witnesses, 13 video or audio elements, 6 doctors or psychologists providing expert assessments, he listed. “For the defense, there was no type of crime” and “yes, there was consent from this 40-year-old lady,” he summarized.
Previously, his colleague German Hnatow had summarized the affair for AFP as a “scandalous denunciation”, a “ill-intentioned lie […] with financial aims” of compensation.
Me Romano deplored a hearing where “they accused a victim of lying”, instead of “evaluating what happened between four walls” of the room. She said she feared “a complaint for false testimony, a request for reparations” to come against her client, because “that’s the style” of the players’ lawyer, she denounced.
