French rugby players' rape accuser survives suicide attempt, says lawyer

The woman who accused two French international rugby players of raping her while on tour in Argentina last month will miss a court hearing Tuesday after a failed suicide attempt, her lawyers say.

The 39-year-old woman tried to take her own life last Friday, lawyer Mauricio Cardello told the AFP news agency.

She was doing better, Cardello said, but would not attend a hearing Tuesday where the men – Oscar Jégou and Hugo Auradou – are expected to file a motion for the dismissal of the case.

The results of an expert psychiatric examination of the alleged victim are also due to be presented at the next court hearing.

Auradou and Jégou, both 21, were arrested in Buenos Aires in July, two days after winning their first international caps against Argentina in a match staged in Mendoza.

They were charged with aggravated rape of a woman they had met in a bar after the match.

The complainant says she was violently and repeatedly raped by the pair, who insist there was a consensual sexual encounter.

The sportsmen were released from detention to house arrest on July 17, then freed under supervision, though barred from leaving Argentina.

‘Emotional state’

Cardello said Monday his client “is currently in a very emotional state" and that “she is being treated by psychiatrists at the Lagomaggiore public hospital” in Mendoza, where she lives.

Another of the plaintiff’s lawyers, Natacha Romano, said that the suicide attempt occurred at around “3am in the morning” on Friday and that her father had managed to prevent a fatality.

Last Friday, Cardello had told journalists in Mendoza that his client's absence was due to “ill health.”

She was suffering from “stomach problems” which left her in “no condition” to attend, said the lawyer, who assured court authorities she would attend Tuesday’s hearing.

In a report to the court, the prosecutor's office in Mendoza said that there were were no elements to request the pre-trial detention of the accused because there was insufficient evidence and “contradictions” in the plaintiff’s account.

Convinced that the prosecutor’s case is weakened, lawyers for Auradou and Jégou intend to seek the dismissal of the case as soon as possible and seek authorisation for their return to France.

The absence of the plaintiff at Tuesday's hearing does not a priori prevent the French players' lawyers from presenting their request for the case to be dropped, Martin Ahumada, a spokesman for the Mendoza provincial justice system, told AFP on Monday.

– TIMES/AFP