Jegou-Auradou case: lawyers for French rugby players charged with rape to file a request for dismissal of case this Friday

The lawyers of the two French rugby players charged with rape in Argentina intend to file this Friday, August 23, 2024, a request for dismissal to the Mendoza courts, with the aim of allowing the return of Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegouen to France, indicated Thursday one of their defenders.

Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, both 21, are charged with aggravated gang rape. The events allegedly occurred on the night of July 6 to 7, 2024 in a hotel room in Mendoza, 1,000 km from Buenos Aires, where the French XV had just played a test match against Argentina.

Me Rafael Cuneo Libarona intends to file his request this Friday, August 23, 2024 once all the investigative acts have been completed, he explained to journalists at the Mendoza judicial center.

According to him, some acts are still missing, including the results of a psychiatric assessment, which should be received during the day, he specified.

Request for dismissal

The prosecution will have to rule on this request for dismissal. Then the magistrate in charge of the case will convene a hearing to examine the request, which could take place in the middle of next week, explained Me Cuneo Libarona.

A decision could be made a few days later. But the plaintiff's lawyers could then appeal a possible dismissal, he said.

“This legal adventure (…) does not deserve any more delays”, said the Argentinian lawyer, deploring the fact that the Mendoza prosecutor's office had been monopolized “for a month and a half” by this case, to the detriment of “other equally important but less well-known cases”.

Released 10 days ago

The plaintiff, a 39-year-old Argentinian woman who met the players at a nightclub and followed one of them to a hotel, says she was raped and assaulted – “terrible violence” according to her lawyer. The defendants admit to having sexual relations, but say they were consensual, and deny any violence.

After a few days in prison, the two players were placed in preventive detention under house arrest in Mendoza in mid-July. They spent nearly a month there before the prosecution ordered their release ten days ago, due to the lack of “sufficient evidence” according to him to justify continued preventive detention. But he ordered that the players remain in Argentina during the investigation.