After the presentations on Monday by the prosecution, which requested the dismissal of the case, that is to say the abandonment of the proceedings against the players, then their lawyers, it was the turn of Natacha Romano, the lawyer for the plaintiff, a 39-year-old Argentinian, to plead.
Me Romano was to assert his opposition to the dismissal of the case and his request that Auradou and Jégou be tried in a trial.
The lawyers all arrived around 9:00 a.m. (12:00 GMT) at the judicial center of Mendoza (west), without making a statement to the journalists present, AFP noted. The complainant's brother also arrived later.
Judge Eleonora Arenas, presiding over the hearing behind closed doors, could render her decision immediately after the debates, or more likely put it under advisement in a few days, lawyers said.
For almost five months, Auradou and Jegou, 21 years old, have remained charged with aggravated rape because they were committed in a meeting, for alleged acts that occurred on the night of July 6 to 7 in a hotel in Mendoza, where the XV of France had just played a test match against Argentina, followed by a “third half”.
“Terrible violence”
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, however, denounced a rape with “violence terrible”in a case which saw two radically opposed versions of the facts clash. Apart from a convergence on the reality of sexual acts, and an alcoholic context.
After Monday's hearing, the players' lawyer Rafael Cuneo Libarona welcomed a “very, very good” presentation of the prosecution in favor of the dismissal of the case, at the end of“an extremely productive investigation.”
He reaffirmed that “for the defense, there was no type of crime” and that“there was indeed consent from this 40-year-old lady”.
Mr. Romano, for his part, deplored a hearing during which we “accused a victim of lying”instead “to assess what happened within the four walls” from the hotel room. She said she feared “a complaint for false testimony, a request for reparations” to come against his client, denouncing the “style” offensive from the players' lawyer.
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