The Argentine justice system, which has been examining the request for dismissal filed by the lawyers of the two French rugby players since Monday, will continue to hear the prosecution’s arguments on Tuesday before making a decision.
Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou will have to wait a few more hours before finding out what will happen to them. While the dismissal hearing was held on Monday, no decision will be made.
The proceedings began at 9:30 this morning (1:30 p.m. in France) and the prosecution presented its arguments for three hours, but the hearing will, as confirmed by the prosecution, continue on Tuesday, from 9 a.m. (1 p.m. in France), with the plaintiff’s lawyers.
However, the outcome is no longer in doubt. At the beginning of October, the local prosecution requested that the charges be dropped, a month after having authorized the players to return to France, considering that “the initial accusation (had) lost its force” as the investigation progressed. “I am very optimistic,” confided Rafael Cuneo Libarona, the players’ representative, on Sunday, on the eve of the dismissal hearing.
According to the Argentine Penal Code, a dismissal of the case would “definitively and irrevocably” close the judicial process (Article 335) and would mean, in the event of a total abandonment of charges, “the dismissal of the case” (Article 338).
That is, the absolute exoneration of the accused. In this case, the plaintiff would however have three days to appeal, which Natacha Romano, one of her lawyers, intends to do, as has already announced on several occasions.
Arrested on July 8 in Buenos Aires, Pau second row Hugo Auradou and La Rochelle third row Oscar Jegou, both aged 21, have continued to proclaim their innocence since the start of this sensational affair.
The two French players, who have returned to the Top 14 in recent weeks, admitted to having consensual sexual relations with the plaintiff, whom they met in a nightclub, but have always categorically denied any form of violence.
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