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 in opposition to 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 in opposition to the 21-year-old athletes, Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, citing inadequate proof.
“The facts under investigation do not constitute a crime,” the court docket mentioned.
The case started in July, when a 39-year-old Argentine lady filed a police grievance alleging that she was crushed, 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 in opposition to Argentina’s Pumas – however insisted that the encounter was consensual. They had been held in preventive custody, then positioned beneath home arrest, for a month.
The defence mentioned 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, instructed Radio Mitre Mendoza, a neighborhood radio station. “There are many false accusations in terms of sexual crimes, in terms of gender violence, which cause harm.”
The plaintiff can enchantment in opposition to the ruling. She has not mentioned 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 court docket – together with WhatsApp voice messages the plaintiff despatched to her pal joking and boasting concerning the tough intercourse she had with them – the prosecution in September permitted the athletes’ return to France beneath sure circumstances.
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 had been associated to her assault.
The French Rugby Federation expressed its “relief and satisfaction” with the decide’s determination. It mentioned the athletes, who had been suspended due to the seriousness of the allegations, could be eligible to return to the nationwide staff “if their sporting performances allow for it”.
