Two skilled French rugby gamers accused of raping a girl can be found for worldwide choice for the 2025 Guinness Six Nations after the alleged rape case towards them in Argentina was dismissed on Tuesday.
The decide in Mendoza, some 1,000km (620 miles) west of the capital, Buenos Aires, dismissed the case towards the 21-year-old athletes, Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, citing inadequate proof.
“The facts under investigation do not constitute a crime,” the courtroom stated.
The case started in July, when a 39-year-old Argentine lady filed a police grievance alleging that she was overwhelmed, choked and repeatedly raped by the rugby gamers of their Mendoza resort room.
The rugby gamers have admitted to having intercourse with the plaintiff – whom they met throughout an alcohol-fuelled membership evening after their July 7 victory towards Argentina’s Pumas – however insisted that the encounter was consensual. They have been held in preventive custody, then positioned underneath home arrest, for a month.
The defence stated the dismissal bolstered their religion within the justice system.
“I think it will be a turning point,” German Hnatow, a lawyer representing one of many two gamers, advised Radio Mitre Mendoza, an area radio station. “There are many false accusations in terms of sexual crimes, in terms of gender violence, which cause harm.”
The plaintiff can attraction towards the ruling. She has not stated whether or not she intends to and her lawyer didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Over the previous few months, the case slowly unravelled because the defence punched holes within the lady’s description of occasions.
Citing questionable proof offered earlier than the courtroom – together with WhatsApp voice messages the plaintiff despatched to her buddy joking and boasting concerning the tough intercourse she had with them – the prosecution in September authorized the athletes’ return to France underneath sure situations.
The plaintiff’s lawyer has defined any inconsistencies in her account as the results of her “shock and extreme stress”.
She underwent bodily examinations as a part of the investigation and was discovered to have an acute bleeding ulcer and different accidents that she claimed have been associated to her assault.
The French Rugby Federation expressed its “relief and satisfaction” with the decide’s determination. It stated the athletes, who had been suspended due to the seriousness of the allegations, can be eligible to return to the nationwide workforce “if their sporting performances allow for it”.
