The decision that prosecutors made to defend him

The first players of the French rugby team accused of serious sexual abuse in Mendoza spent their first night in a shared cell in the Estrada Building, prison for temporary detention in the Mendoza city jail and judicial complex. The measure is related to concerns that they could be potentially attacked while in custody.

Hugo Araudou (20) and Oscar Jegou (21) He was arrested in Buenos Aires and transferred to Mendoza, where he is accused of abusing a 39-year-old woman in the early hours of July 8 in a room at the luxury hotel where the entire team and technical staff were staying.

Rugby players from Ávila Les BleusThe French team, as it is known, traveled to Argentina and Uruguay for a tour of friendly matches with Uruguayan teams Los Pumas and Los Terros.

They met the complainant on Sunday morning at the Wabi Bowling Alley in Lujan de Cuyo A night of celebration after winning the first match,

The preview was held at the Berlin Bar, on Aristides Villanueva Street, just a block from the hotel where some members of the team drank whiskey, vodka, gin and beer until after 2 in the morning.

A small group went bowling. They were welcomed into the Wabi VIP room, where the complainant was also with another friend. There, Arandou began chatting with her and offered her a drink. According to the woman’s statement, he tried to convince her to go to the bathroom at the bowling alley, but she refused.

At around 5 in the morning the rugby player called her to the Diplomatic Hotel to continue drinking. He traveled from Cabify with another rugby player and a girl from Mendoza.

When they arrived at the hotel, security cameras captured them in the hallway and elevator, where Araudou and the woman kissed and he tried to take off his clothes.

They went up to the sixth floor. At the door of room 603, the athlete realized he didn’t have the card to open it. He decided to go to the lobby alone to ask for a copy. The woman was waiting for him in the hallway. When Araudou returned, they entered the room.

“He opened the door and there were only water bottles but no drinks. I asked him to go to the bathroom. Without saying anything he grabbed me with both hands and threw me on the bed. I asked him to let me go home, I told him in English, but he said no,” the victim said.

“He took my clothes off, started choking me, slapping me in the face and… he sexually abused meWithout using a condom,” the woman denounced.

And he said that after 40 minutes another rugby player, a roommate, entered the room. “A short blonde (Jegou) who takes off his clothes when he sees me, pulls me and starts abusing me. I told him to please not do this and let me go.“she remembers.

The victim has described this in her judicial complaint She was raped six times throughout the night.They punched her in the face and head, dragged her, forced her to perform oral sex on them, and tried to suffocate her in the hotel room.

The injuries and scratches were recorded in a forensic study after the victim complained.

The athletes’ defender, criminal lawyer Rafael Cuneo Liberona, brother of Justice Minister Mariano Cuneo Liberona, requested house arrest for the rugby players. Depending on normal times, a judicial resolution can take from one week to ten days.

The lawyer said, “It still has not been proven that the complainant is a victim.” And he questioned the woman: “If I am 40 years old and I go to a guy’s room, he offered me to go to the bathroom three times, a bowling alley sex, and apparently the guy was making obscene gestures at the reception, should I go to the room with him?”

Cuneo Liberona said he had everything ready to request the detention of Araudou and Jegou. “There are ways to ensure less invasive measures of restraint than prison. They’re not going to run away, they’re foreigners, they don’t speak SpanishTheir passports have been withheld, they have no criminal record, the conditions of house arrest have been fulfilled,” he explained.

Arrival in Mendoza this Saturday Rugby familywho traveled from France. “They come to visit them and look for a home so that they can comply with the legal requirements in case they receive the benefit of house arrest,” said one of the researchers.

The home must be in an area with internet access and a reasonable distance from the prison, where inmates are monitored with electric ankle bracelets. It also requires a person who presents himself responsible for care,

The prosecutor’s unit for crimes against sexual integrity of Mendoza, through deputy prosecutor Cecilia Bignert, charged the two French nationals on Friday. The offence of sexual assault with physical access is aggravated by the involvement of two persons,

In the coming days, the case will continue to be investigated by prosecutor Dario Nora, who returned from recess, and agreed with Bignert in keeping the French athletes in temporary prison.

,We are concerned about the safety of these young foreigners“If they are attacked or suffer any humiliation in prison, Mendoza could face an international diplomatic conflict for not guaranteeing the safety of detainees,” he said. bugle A source close to the cause.

The rugby players will remain in the prison transition room in the coming days while it is decided whether or not they will be placed under house arrest, away from the rest of the prisoners,

The rugby defender announced to the local and international media that he had evidence to prove consensual sex without violence,

If the Mendoza judge upholds the charges and the prosecution proceeds, the rugby players risk prison terms ranging between 8 and 20 years. And they could not be extradited to their country until they had completed half their sentence.