By Ramiro Scandolo and Vincent Daheron
BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – An Argentina court has dismissed aggravated rape charges against French international rugby players Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, the pair’s lawyer said on Tuesday, drawing a line under a dark period for the European country’s rugby community.
Auradou and Jegou, both 21, have been under investigation since July 12 for alleged aggravated rape — a charge used for suspected gang rape — in Argentina’s western Mendoza province after they both made their international debut.
The two players always denied any wrongdoing and said the sex was consensual.
“The judge has just ordered the players to be acquitted, arguing that the act was not a crime,” the French players’ lawyer, Rafael Cuneo Libarona, told Reuters. “The dismissal is not due to doubt, but because the crime did not exist.”
The two players spent several days in preventive detention and almost a month under house arrest in Argentina. They were eventually allowed to leave Argentina at the start of September, when they returned to France.
Auradou has played eight matches for his club, Section Paloise, since he returned to competition on Oct. 5 while Jegou resumed playing on Nov. 2 with Stade Rochelais and has played four matches.
The French rugby federation president Florian Grill told Reuters in October that they would not play for the French national team again “until the case is dismissed”.
(Reporting by Ramiro Scandolo; Writing by Adam Jourdan)
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