French rugby duo accused of serious sexual assault return to France after court ruling

By Priscilla Jepchumba

Two French rugby players accused of serious sexual assault in Argentina have returned to France after their arrest in the South American country.

Last month, a court in Mendoza released them from house arrest and on Monday the same court allowed the 21-year-old to go home, but their trial is still ongoing.

A 39-year-old woman accused members of Argentina’s national rugby team of beating, choking and raping her in a luxury hotel room while she was working as a hostess during the World Cup, drawing attention to what opponents say is a harmful male culture among professional athletes.

The French Rugby Federation was pleased that the court had allowed the athletes to leave the country. It said it wanted to hear the plaintiff’s statement while the judiciary had to wait to sentence the players.

The public prosecutor’s office in Mendoza, about 900 kilometers west of Buenos Aires, imposed conditions for the release.

Auradou and Jegou agreed to attend the hearings at the Argentine consulate in France and to return to Mendoza whenever the court requested it.

Auradou and Jegou both had sexual relations with the plaintiff, whom they met in a strip club in Mendoza after their victory over Argentina.

The plaintiff argues that the athletes sexually abused her, took her to her hotel room and locked her there against her will.

A few days after she filed the complaint, all of the players were arrested while the team continued its South American tour to Uruguay.

A judge in Mendoza allowed Auradou and Jegou to return to France on Tuesday, lifting the plaintiff’s ban on the defendants undergoing further psychological tests.

On 12 August, one month after Auradou and Jegou were arrested, the court released them from house arrest because of obvious contradictions in the plaintiff’s testimony, which made the prosecution lose faith in its ability to build a solid case.

The plaintiff’s lawyers unsuccessfully requested the dismissal of the public prosecutor’s investigators, accusing them of bias and failure to consider the case from a gender perspective.

Her lawyer, Rafael Cuneo, spoke to the press about the judge’s decision. “This is a very important first step,” he said. “Perhaps it is even more important than the release, because being allowed to leave the country means that the Mendoza legal system trusts our work,” Cuneo added.

Severe sexual assault is punishable by up to 20 years in prison in Argentina.