Rugby players accused of rape in Argentina returned to France

The two French rugby players accused of rape in Argentina They returned to France on Wednesday with the aim of winning “the media battle” after the Argentine justice system authorized his release while the case remains open.

Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, 21 years old, arrived at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport on Wednesday afternoon, their lawyer said.

Both players played a match for the French rugby team against the Argentine Pumas in Mendoza, in western Argentina, at the beginning of July. where the alleged rape occurred.

A 39-year-old woman, whom they met at a nightclub, She claims that they both raped her on the night of July 6 in a hotel room in Mendoza. The players, however, claim that the sexual relations were consensual.

“They mistreated me and treated me like a piece of meat,” the complainant said in her first testimony in the French press, broadcast on the renowned programme Envoyé Spécial (Special Envoy) on public channel France 2.

The broadcast published excerpts of the interview on its social networks on Tuesday, which will be broadcast in full on September 12, and in which the complainant explains her version of the events.

“Everyone asks me today: ‘The door was open, why didn’t you get out?’ (…) I preferred not to do anything after all the blows I received. If I hadn’t done it, I might not be alive today,” the woman explains.

For the French lawyer of the accused Antoine Vey, Now the “media battle” begins, he told Franceinfo radio.

The dissemination of these statements “The day they return (…) is part of the media circus,” Vey denounced.

In France, the lFight against sexual assaults on women has gained strength in recent years in various fields, such as cinema.

– Departure with conditions –

On July 8, both rugby players were arrested in Buenos Aires and taken to Mendoza. In mid-August they were released after the Prosecutor’s Office pointed to “frank internal and peripheral contradictions” in the complainant’s story.

And on Tuesday, a Mendoza court reported that They could leave Argentina The complaint did not object to an exit permit granted the day before by the Public Prosecutor’s Office. For the public prosecutor, “the initial accusation has lost strength.”

But the complainant’s lawyer, Natacha Romano, expressed her disagreement with the authorization and He considered the bail amount of nearly $10,000 to be “ridiculous” for each one. His client attempted suicide in late August, he said.

According to the defense, the investigation determined that the plaintiff He hid from the justice system that he suffered from von Willebrand syndromewhich affects blood clotting and can predispose to bruising or bleeding.

The players’ lawyers also added several audios WhatsApp messages that the woman sent to a friend in the hours after the events and in which she spoke highly of the players and the sexual encounter.

“This is a horror movie that should never have existed,” lawyer Rafael Cúneo told reporters at the airport, without ruling out the possibility of filing a countersuit.

The rugby players’ defense filed a request for dismissal of the case on August 27, although It is not yet known when the hearing will take place. to process this request.

While the case is being processed, the players, who remain accused, dThey must appear before the Argentine embassy or consulate, as well as before the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Mendoza, in person or virtually, when required.

The French Rugby Federation (FFR) welcomed the decision of the Argentine Prosecutor’s Office to authorize the return to France of the two internationals and recalled “the presumption of innocence of the two players, who have always claimed their innocence.”