Something new in the Hugo Auradou – Oscar Jegou affair. According to our information, the lawyers of the woman accusing the two French rugby players of aggravated gang rape in Mendoza (Argentina) filed a formal request for recusal of the judge in charge of the case, Eleonora Arenas, due to a “latent risk lack of impartiality.
In a seven-page document to which we had access, the counsel deplores that the magistrate refused to take into consideration new evidence of “vital importance”, including testimony from medical experts. A decision confirmed on appeal on November 1 and, according to them, “comparable to a sentence”.
The appeal, which has very little chance of succeeding, will be examined this Friday at 3 p.m. (7 p.m. in France) at the Mendoza judicial center. It should a priori have no impact on the dismissal hearing, still set for Monday, November 25 after having been postponed three times. “It’s a huge legal absurdity,” reacts Rafael Cuneo Libarona, the players’ Argentinian lawyer, who is preparing a file to defend the magistrate’s work.
At the beginning of September, the Argentine courts rejected another request for recusal filed by the plaintiff's camp, this time targeting the prosecutors in charge of the case.
Free but still indicted to this day, Pau second line Hugo Auradou and La Rochelle third line Oscar Jegou, both aged 21, have proclaimed their innocence since the start of this affair. The two French players, who returned to the Top 14 in recent weeks, acknowledge a consensual sexual relationship with the alleged victim – a woman from the South American country – but categorically deny any form of violence.
The facts with which they are accused took place on the night of July 6 to 7 in a luxury hotel in Mendoza, after a test match won by the Blues against the Pumas (28-13).
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