Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou: rugby union internationals cleared of sexual assault in Argentina | Rugby union information

Two French skilled rugby gamers accused of raping a girl can be found for the 2025 Guinness Six Nations worldwide squad after the alleged rape case in opposition to them in Argentina was dismissed on Tuesday.

The choose in Mendoza, about 1,000 kilometers west of the capital, Buenos Aires, dismissed the costs in opposition to the 21-year-old athletes, Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, citing inadequate proof.

“The details underneath investigation don’t represent against the law,” the courtroom stated.

The case started in July, when a 39-year-old Argentinian lady filed a criticism in opposition to police, alleging she had been crushed, strangled and raped repeatedly by rugby gamers of their resort room in Mendoza.

The rugby gamers admitted to having intercourse with the complainant – who they met at a drunken membership evening after their July 7 victory over Argentina's Pumas – however insisted the assembly was consensual. They had been positioned in preventive detention, then positioned underneath home arrest for a month.

The protection stated the dismissal elevated its confidence within the justice system.

“I believe it is going to be a turning level,” German Hnatow, a lawyer representing one of many two gamers, instructed Radio Miter Mendoza, a neighborhood radio station. “There are numerous false accusations by way of sexual crimes, by way of gender violence, that trigger hurt.”

The complainant can attraction the choice. She has not stated whether or not she intends to take action and her lawyer didn’t reply to a request for remark.

Over the previous few months, the case has slowly unfolded because the protection poked holes within the lady's description of occasions.

Citing questionable proof introduced in courtroom – together with WhatsApp voice messages despatched by the complainant to her good friend joking and bragging concerning the tough intercourse she had with them – the prosecution accredited the athletes' return to France in September underneath sure situations.

The plaintiff's lawyer defined the inconsistencies in her story as the results of her “shock and excessive stress.”

She underwent bodily examinations as a part of the investigation and was discovered to have an acute bleeding ulcer and different accidents she believed had been associated to her assault.

The French Rugby Federation expressed its “aid and satisfaction” with the choose's resolution. He stated the athletes, who had been suspended as a result of seriousness of the allegations, can be eligible to return to the nationwide staff “if their sporting efficiency permits”.