The two members of the French team, accused of rape by a 39-year-old woman in Argentina, were released on Monday, August 12. However, they remain charged and are prohibited from leaving the country.
The two French rugby players charged with rape in Argentina were released on Monday August 12, a little over a month after their arrest, but they will have to remain in Argentina while the investigation continues, announced the Mendoza (west) prosecutor’s office.
The prosecution considered that at this stage “sufficient evidence has not been gathered” to justify the continued preventive detention of Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou. They had been imprisoned after their arrest on July 8, then placed under house arrest on the 17th in Mendoza. The prosecution spokesperson, reading a statement to journalists at the Mendoza judicial center, indicated that “the retention of their passports, the ban on leaving the country, and on entering into contact with the complainant” remained in force.
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Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, both 21, are charged with aggravated gang rape on the night of July 6-7 on a 39-year-old Argentinian woman in a hotel room in Mendoza, 1,000 km from Buenos Aires, where the French XV had just played a test match against Argentina.
“Inconsistencies” and “gray areas”
The alleged victim, who had met the players in a nightclub and followed one to a hotel, says she was raped and assaulted in their room. The accused admit to having sexual intercourse, but claim it was consensual, and deny any violence. The prosecution justified the release in its statement “not only by the absence of […] preeminence of the incriminating evidence” at this stage of the proceedings, but also because “clear internal and peripheral contradictions with the complainant’s story” have been established.
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“The existence of notorious contradictions, inconsistencies, grey areas and even insufficient explanations concerning the various factual circumstances cannot be ignored,” the prosecution continued, based on the plaintiff’s statements and the evidence collected. Jegou and Auradou’s French lawyer, Antoine Vey, welcomed the release to AFP, “an expected decision, which constitutes a crucial step towards the judicial recognition of the innocence” of the two players, which he said he hoped to see come to fruition “in the coming weeks” so that “they can resume their lives” in France.
Natacha Romano, the plaintiff’s lawyer, deplored a decision to release them that “causes even greater harm and anxiety to the victim and her family”, with the fear that the accused, now free, “will act against her psychological and physical safety”. Jegou and Auradou’s Argentinian lawyer, Rafael Cuneo Libarona, filed a request for release on Thursday following their hearings, the first on the merits. For him, freedom meant “returning to France”, so that they could “start working again”, that is to say, play rugby professionally. But for Romano, however, the “logical and coherent” plan was for the players to remain in Argentina.
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Audio messages in question
However, Mr. Cuneo Libarona estimated that the investigation “could be completed in two months.” The other lawyer for the plaintiff, Mauricio Cardello, for his part questioned on Monday that the procedure would end so quickly. Among other things, the plaintiff should soon undergo a psychological assessment, which according to her lawyer had not yet been carried out due to the lack of an available expert. During the hearings, questions had focused in particular on the crucial point of consent.
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The players “were never able to answer (the question of) whether they had asked the victim if she agreed or not,” deplored Me Romano. Audio messages also appeared in the hearings, exchanged by the complainant with a friend in the hours following the events; “several Whatsapp (messages) in which she speaks well” of the players, according to Me Cuneo Liberona.
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The complainant was “able to explain these messages very calmly,” her lawyer assured. The prosecution mentioned this in its press release, noting “the funny tone” at the beginning of the conversation in question between the complainant and her friend. Regarding the injuries observed on the complainant, it also noted that she “suffers from an illness that would explain the presence of hematomas at one point.”
