Jegou/Auradou case: the verdict is approaching, the dismissal is still far from being pronounced, the news

The two rugby players are now waiting for the verdict of the Argentinian justice system and the latter will take more time than expected.

While French sport is shaken by the Kylian Mbappé affair and the rape accusations against him, the case of the two French XV players, Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, is in its final phase. But contrary to what was initially said, the final court decision will not be given this Friday, October 18, as Midi Olympique indicated. It will therefore be a two-phase process. ” positioned on October 18 and 25 to officially request a dismissal”, the players' entourage explains to Midi Olympique. "The second hearing for a dismissal will be held on October 25. During these two hearings, each party will plead. The decision can then be made between October 25 and the following ten days."  Neither the players nor the complainant will be present, and the hearing is behind closed doors, according to a judicial source contacted by BFMTV.

A hard blow for the French who might have been able to apply for the French XV's autumn tour. “Without an official dismissal, Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou will not play for the French team”, said Jean-Marc Lhermet, vice-president of the FFR. As a reminder, the two internationals had been charged with aggravated rape (because committed in a group) for alleged acts 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. After a first long battle, the players were authorized by the Argentine justice system to leave the country on September 3 and return to France, despite their indictment. The reason ? “the existence of notorious contradictions, inconsistencies, gray areas and even insufficient explanations” as explained by the prosecution.

A chilling testimony

The alleged victim gave a chilling account to Envoy Spécial a few days later. “They brutalized me and treated me like a piece of meat,” she explained. “He grabbed my neck. He put me on the bed. He undressed me like a brute. He pulled me out of bed while I was naked and lifted me by the neck, so much so that I had no more oxygen. I tried to react by slapping him. Instead of stopping him, that slap made him want to continue".

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Audio messages that challenge the victim's version ?

Crucial evidence from the case has 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 Nacionrevealed the content of one of these messages: “You don't know how cute this Frenchman was, the tallest, the kid was terrible”. The Argentinian site Clarin even reveals much more explicit messages from the complainant: “I met a French rugby player. Super tall guy. Too handsome, too handsome. I came home at 9 in the morning. &At 9 o'clock! I owe you everything, you encouraged me not to stay here at home, always the same story. When I go out, I take advantage of it. He broke me, he broke me. He broke me, the guy. I have marks on my back, my jaw."

Rafael Cúneo Libarona, another lawyer for the two players, said on August 6 that “the innocence of the two players has been proven”, considering that there were “notorious contradictions” in the testimony of the 39-year-old woman. For her part, Natacha Romano, the plaintiff's lawyer, has been criticizing “manipulation” from the beginning and a “premeditated act” after the voice messages were leaked to the Argentine press. “There are 23 voice messages in total and only four or five have been leaked, in disarray and “completely taken out of context,” she said in an interview with the Parisien. She also stated that the players had “never been able to answer whether they had asked the victim if she “agreed or not”.

A coagulation disorder that relaunches the investigation ?

The two players had stated since the beginning of the case that the sexual relations with the complainant, whom he met in a nightclub, were consensual. They had denied any violence, when the complainant's lawyer had mentioned “terrible violence”.”In recent weeks, a new medical report had been presented to justify that the complainant did not suffer from a coagulation disorder. This disease (called Willebrand disease) had been invoked by the players' defense to explain the bruises found on her body. The young woman herself had admitted, initially at the beginning of the case, to suffering from this disease. A contradictory version therefore which once again fuels certain inconsistencies in the version. The experts initially called upon in this case noted “contradictory and inconsistent content when explaining the situations she was confronted with (…) which generally paint an unlikely story”.