After almost five months, numerous postponements of hearings and procedural appeals, the Argentine justice system will finally examine this Monday, November 25, 2024, the request to drop the proceedings filed by the lawyers of Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, the two French rugby players charged with aggravated rape in July.
At the Mendoza judicial center, the lawyers of the plaintiff, a 39-year-old Argentine mother of two children, and those of the players Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou will debate behind closed doors the dismissal requested at the end of August by the representatives of the two young internationals. The prosecution will also plead for the prosecution to be dropped, as it announced at the end of the investigation.
The judge presiding over the hearing could render her decision immediately, or more likely put it under advisement within a few days, according to parties in the case.
11,000 km away, the two 21-year-old players, who returned to France at the beginning of September after the green light from the Argentine courts, have resumed their lives as rugby players: since October for Auradou, since November for Jegou. Both played again this weekend in the Top 14.
A “normality” sporting which would almost make us forget that they remain charged with aggravated rape because they were committed in a meeting, facing between eight and 20 years in prison if found guilty. If there is a trial, which the prosecution is therefore not considering.
A gap between versions
Auradou and Jegou are charged for alleged events that occurred on the night of July 6 to 7 in a hotel room in Mendoza, where the French XV had just played a test match against Argentina, followed by a “third half”. Both have affirmed from the beginning that the sexual relations with the complainant, met in a nightclub, were consensual and without violence.
The complainant's lawyer, on the contrary, denounced a rape with “violence terrible”. If consent, or not, is at the heart of rape cases, the gap in this case appeared spectacular between the radically opposed versions of the protagonists. The only convergence: there were indeed sexual acts in the hotel room between the players and the complainant, and in an alcoholic context.
Throughout the investigation, analysis of testimonies, video surveillance images, audio messages (from the complainant with a friend, in particular), “it is clear (…) that the initial accusation has lost its force”had raised the floor by authorizing the return to France of the players. Who had spent, at the beginning of July, a little over a week in preventive detention, then almost a month under house arrest. For their lawyers, the case is that of a “scandalous denunciation”and “ill-intentioned lie (…) with financial aims” compensation, “otherwise there is no other explanation”says Me German Hnatow with hindsight.
The “post-Mendoza” in rugby
Natacha Romano, the plaintiff's lawyer – another has dissociated himself from the case – maintains that her client did not consent and was atrociously assaulted. And throughout the procedure, she increasingly attacked justice according to her “partial”or even under orders – a players' lawyer is brother of the Minister of Justice. The complainant herself, “Maria”, expressed her feeling of having been “abandoned” by the Argentine courts. Me Romano, who has not spoken to the media for more than a month, tried to have the two co-prosecutors in charge of the investigation recused, then judged her again last Friday.
Appeals dismissed. “Incessant attempts to obstruct, delay, quibble”railed Mr. Hnatow, as the tone rose between the Argentine lawyers. With on the side of the complainant threats of future complaints against a players' lawyer, on the other the less and less veiled mention of future “repair requests” from the players.
French rugby, in all this? He continues to digest the shock wave of “the night of Mendoza” – where another player, Melvyn Jaminet, had made racist remarks on his social networks, for which he was suspended.
Three victories for the Blues during the autumn tour restored pre-eminence to the field, but “post-Mendoza” promised by the French rugby authorities is underway: on the living environment, alcohol consumption, the progress of tours, prevention, possible sanctions.
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