The two French rugby players accused of rape have been released but must remain in Argentina, announces the Mendoza prosecutor’s office

They cannot return to France. The two rugby players from the French XV, Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, accused of raping and beating a woman in their hotel, on the night of Saturday 6 to Sunday 7 July, after a match of the French XV, are now free, announced the Mendoza prosecutor’s office on Monday 12 August. However, they are obliged to remain in Argentina while the investigation continues, it specifies.

The prosecution considered that at this stage, the “sufficient evidence has not been gathered” to justify the continued preventive detention of Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, charged with aggravated rape. After being arrested on July 8, then imprisoned, the two rugby players had been placed under house arrest since July 17.

In early July, Mendoza’s attorney general, Daniela Chaler, stated that “the deposition [de la plaignante] was quite long, complete, detailed and corresponded, for the time being, to the forensic conclusions”. She added that “the injuries are consistent with the victim’s account, but not necessarily exclusively the result of sexual assault”.

For their part, the two athletes have “confirmed having had sexual intercourse with the young woman during the night but (…) firmly denied any form of violence”according to a press release from the French Rugby Federation published at the beginning of July. These sexual relations were “consented”said their Argentine lawyer Rafael Cuneo Libarona.