Attempts by defence lawyers to free two French rugby players charged with raping an Argentine woman last month in Mendoza have been put back until next week.
Defence lawyers for French national rugby team players Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jégou, both aged 21, were told that their attempt to seek a dismissal of all charges against their clients will be postponed until at least next week due to the accuser’s health problems.
“The hearing has been suspended until next Tuesday at the same time due to my client’s ill health,” said the plaintiff’s lawyer Mauricio Cardello to the press outside the gates of a courthouse in Mendoza last Friday.
“These kinds of questions generate nerves, anxiety. She already had stomach problems prior to this issue and ... she was in no condition to come, but she will be here on Tuesday," said Cardello.
Lawyers for the rugby players had planned to file a motion for dismissal on Friday and seek permission for those accused to be able to return to France.
The accused are currently on bail, though the court has ruled they must stay in Argentina until the end of the trial.
Seeking to capitalise on the pushback, defence lawyer Rafael Cúneo Libarona – the brother of Argentina's Justice Minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona – described the suspension of the hearing as a “delaying tactic.”
The results of an expert psychiatric examination of the alleged victim was due to be presented in court on Friday.
Cúneo Libarona said he expected the plaintiff to show up next week.
It’s “a dark day for justice, a sad day for me, because I’m the first person who wants the players to go back to France as soon as possible, because they deserve it. The players are in good spirits, but hoping to return" home, he declared.
Auradou and Jegou are free to move around Mendoza, but they face serious allegations that could land them up to 20 years in jail if arrested.
The two men were arrested in Buenos Aires in July after a 39-year-old woman accused them of raping her multiple times and beating at her in a Mendoza hotel room.
The event took place on the night of July 6 to 7, hours after the players had been part of the French national rugby team that had played Argentina in the same city.
The men deny the accusations and say they had consensual sexual relations with the woman. They say there was no violence.
The accuser, who met the players at a night club and left with one of them to a hotel, said she was raped and assaulted by both of them in their room.
Last week, prosecutors admitted there were “inconsistencies” in the victim’s account, increasing the likelihood the two players would receive a favourable ruling.
– TIMES/AFP
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