Is the resounding Auradou-Jegou affair, which stirred up the news in France as in Argentina from July to December, really closed? The woman who accuses the French rugby players Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou of rape, during a tour of the XV of France in Argentina this summer, will in any case go to the end of the legal appeals against the abandonment of the proceedings, has just assured his lawyer on Thursday.
On December 10, Argentine justice dismissed the case for the benefit of two 21-year-old French internationals accused of aggravated rape (because it was committed in a meeting) by a woman during an alcoholic evening in Mendoza (north-west of Argentina). Argentina), on the night of July 6 to 7, after a match of the XV of France against the Pumas.
Next step: the Court of Cassation of Mendoza
The plaintiff's lawyer, Me Natacha Romano, immediately announced her intention to appeal the decision rendered by a judge at the Mendoza judicial center where the case was heard. According to Me Romano, justice has authorized the filing of the appeal, which will take place in the coming days. “My client's instructions are to exhaust all appeal authorities, to go to the end of the appeals”, up to the highest courts.
The next steps are therefore the Court of Cassation of Mendoza, then the Supreme Court of Mendoza, and finally the National Supreme Court. The lawyer said she was ready to refer the case, as a last resort, to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) established in Costa Rica. The 39-year-old complainant says she was attacked, after a meeting in a nightclub, in the hotel where members of the French rugby team were staying.
“Proofs waiting”
“The act investigated does not constitute an offense,” said the judge who dismissed the case, therefore indicating that there had been no rape. For Me Romano, all evidence “should be fully evaluated”. “We have evidence awaiting production which had even been ordered and, surprisingly, the prosecutor did not want to produce it,” adds the lawyer. It refers to the origin of the bruises that the plaintiff presented and which were confirmed by the courts.
