before Argentine deputies, the complainant denounces “political pressure”

The complainant in the case of an alleged rape in Argentina by two French rugby players presented Thursday, before a legislative committee, her sense of rights “scorned” by the courts, as the examination of a request for dismissal of the case for his alleged attackers approaches.

“We presented the request on what we believe to have been, and still to be, a constant and permanent violation of our rights and guarantees in the judicial field”declared to the press in Mendoza (west) Felix, father of the 39-year-old complainant, who did not give his name to preserve the anonymity of his daughter.

Jegou-Auradou case: the alleged victim says she is “abandoned” by the courts

“We will resort to all necessary authorities” for the protection of these rights, including “of course” international bodies, he added without further details, after his daughter’s hearing remotely, himself in person.

The commission cannot find an agreement

The “Rights and Guarantees Commission” of Mendoza is made up of half a dozen deputies of the Provincial Assembly, from various sides. Its resolutions do not have legal value, but it can make a formal request for explanations to the prosecutor in charge of the investigation.

However “there was no agreement” in committee for such a resolution, regretted to the media its president Jose Luis Ramon, adding that he will therefore formulate, in his personal capacity as president, a request for access to the investigation file for information purposes.

“There is a very strong political aspect” in this matter, denounced the deputy (center-left), deploring “the attempt to transform the victim into a litigant”and making the (center-right) provincial government of Mendoza responsible.

“There is something that smells bad”

Jose Luis Ramon, president of the rights commission

“There is something that smells bad”he insisted, evoking a “political pressure” to close the case, a “extreme speed” decisions of the prosecution, and recalling that the rugby players’ lawyer is the brother of the Minister of Justice of the Milei government.

The complainant felt on several occasions that she had been mistreated by the courts, and her lawyers had requested in early September, in vain, the recusal of the two prosecutors responsible for the investigation.

The Mendoza courts must in the coming days set a hearing date for the examination of the request for dismissal, filed at the end of August by the players’ lawyers.

Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, two 21-year-old French rugby players, are charged with aggravated rape in a meeting, allegedly occurring on the night of July 6 to 7 in a hotel room in Mendoza, 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. First detained then placed under house arrest, they were released in mid-August, then authorized to leave Argentina pending the end of the investigation. They returned to France on September 4, and have since resumed training in their clubs.