Jegou-Auradou case: the two rugby players released this Monday ?

Accused of rape for a month, Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou will find out if they are kept in preventive detention in Argentina or if they can return to France.

Will Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou stay in Argentina or return to France in the coming hours? ? The Argentine justice system must rule this Monday, August 12, 2024, on the fate of the two French rugby players, accused of rape, placed in pretrial detention on July 8, then under house arrest two weeks later. On the other side du Globe, the third and second rows of the XV of France are the subject of a complaint filed by a woman, accusing the duo of “gang rape”. A night of horror, according to her story. Opposite, the rugby players admitted to having had a relationship with her, while refuting the accusations of violence.

Since then, a media battle has been engaged between the two camps, through the interposed voices of their lawyers. The fact remains that it is up to the courts to decide. This Monday, the house arrest of the two players ends. A magistrate must therefore decide whether or not the preventive detention should continue. If this is the case, Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou will have to stay in Argentina. If not, they will be able to return to France. This will not mean that the case will be closed since the investigation will continue.

Audio messages that challenge the victim's version ?

An investigation therefore conducted in a tense climate. Crucial pieces of evidence added to the case have been leaked to the press. These are audio messages from the complainant to a friend in the hours following the alleged rape. The Argentinian newspaper La Nacion revealed the content of one of these messages: "You don't know that how cute that Frenchman was, the tallest, the kid was terrible.” The Argentine site Clarin even reveals much more explicit messages from the complainant: “I met' a French rugby player. Super tall guy. Too beautiful, too beautiful. I returned home at night. 9 a.m. À 9 hours! I owe you everything, you encouraged me to succeed. don't stay here at home, always the same story. When I go out, I enjoy it. He broke me, he broke me. The guy blew me up. I have marks on my back, my jaw."

Rafael Cúneo Libarona, the lawyer for the two players, said on August 6 that “the innocence of the two players has been proven.” He asked for their release and is confident that they will return to France quickly. He believes that there would be “notable contradictions” in the testimony of the 39-year-old woman, whose identity is not known.

For her part, Natacha Romano, the plaintiff's lawyer, denounces a “manipulation” and a “premeditated act” after the voice messages were broadcast in the Argentine press. “There are 23 voice messages in total and only four or five have been disclosed, in disorder by being completely taken out of context,” she declared in an interview with Parisien. She also stated that the players were “never able to answer whether they had asked the victim whether she “agreed or not”.

“Flagrant evidence” of the rape ?

At the same time, the complainant sticks to her guns. “When you analyze all this in detail, the only strategy of the lawyers of the accused is to lie, to sow doubts,” his brother said, questioned by Le Parisien.According to him, there are “elements demonstrating that there was a non-consensual act, a rape, starting with the number of injuries (fifteen) noted by the coroner on the day the complaint was filed. She said no. The evidence is clear. We are afraid that justice will not be served, that political pressure will influence the prosecutor in charge of the case (Darío Nora), who nevertheless has a reputation for being tough,” he said.

In Argentine law, sexual violence can include acts ranging from sexual assault to aggravated rape, which could be punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

The acts allegedly took place after a match between the XV de France

Accused of sexually assaulting a woman on the night of Saturday, July 6, 2024, in Mendoza, on the sidelines of the South American tour of the French XV and after a large victory against Argentina, Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jégou were arrested in Buenos Aires on July 8, from where The team was supposed to fly to Uruguay for a new confrontation.

“He grabs her, throws her, starts undressing her and starts hitting her”

The plaintiff's lawyer has revealed her client's story to the press. And it is particularly damning. The victim allegedly suffered “terrible violence,” according to Natacha Romano, who spoke to AFP on Wednesday, July 10. “Gender-based violence is extremely serious, the degradation is extreme (…). The violence here has been “terrible,” she said.

“It would be a seriously atrocious sexual abuse, with sexual intercourse, with the participation of two people, with violence, for both of them”, the lawyer still indicates. She specifies the sequence of events alleged, indicating that her client returned to the hotel with one of the players, “identified as Hugo”. “He immediately grabs her, throws her on the bed, begins to undress her and begins to savagely hit her with a punch, the bruising of which is visible on the victim's face. He suffocates her, to the point that she feels like she is going away,” she continues.

The lawyer claims that Oscar Jegou, who arrived in the room an hour later, committed “the same acts of violence and sexual abuse.” Then, this individual goes to take a bath, and Hugo continues to use her, hitting her various times. That is to say, she [has traces] of bites, scratches, blows on the breasts, legs and ribs marked on the back,” explains the lawyer, who also claims that the victim tried to to escape"at least five times", in vain. 

A disputed version

"Witnesses saw her leaving [the hotel], the cameras saw her leaving, there are no signs of beatings, apparently, according to the recordings. She claims to have been “Beaten, the cameras say she wasn't,” the players' lawyer explained. Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jégou claim that the relationship was consensual according to the latter.

According to the attorney general of Mendoza, Daniela Chaler, “the statement”[of the complainant]””was quite long, complete, detailed and corresponded, for the time being, to the forensic conclusions”. “The injuries are consistent with the victim's account, but not necessarily exclusively from sexual assault,” she added.