An Argentina court has dismissed aggravated rape charges against French international rugby players Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou, the pair’s lawyer said on Tuesday, drawing a line under a dark period for the European country’s rugby community.
Auradou and Jegou, both 21, have been under investigation since July 12 for alleged aggravated rape – a charge used for suspected gang rape – in Argentina’s western Mendoza province after they both made their international debut.
The two players always denied any wrongdoing and said the sex was consensual.
“The judge has just ordered the players to be acquitted, arguing that the act was not a crime,” the French players’ lawyer, Rafael Cuneo Libarona, told Reuters. “The dismissal is not due to doubt, but because the crime did not exist.”
The two players spent several days in preventive detention and almost a month under house arrest in Argentina. They were eventually allowed to leave Argentina at the start of September, when they returned to France.
Auradou has played eight matches for his club, Section Paloise, since he returned to competition on Oct. 5 while Jegou resumed playing on Nov. 2 with Stade Rochelais and has played four matches.
The French rugby federation president Florian Grill told Reuters in October that they would not play for the French national team again “until the case is dismissed”.
An investigation into alleged rape and sexual assault in Stockholm which Swedish media said targeted Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe has been closed due to insufficient evidence, the Swedish prosecutor said Thursday.
Mbappe, the 25-year-old Frenchman who is one of the highest-profile players in world football, visited the Swedish capital October 9-11 with a group of people after he was left out of his country's squad for a Nations League match.
Sweden's prosecution authority announced on October 15 that it was investigating an alleged incident that occurred at an upscale Stockholm hotel on October 10, without mentioning the suspect by name.
Several Swedish media outlets, including newspapers Aftonbladet and Expressen and public broadcaster SVT, identified Mbappe as the suspect.
"My assessment is that the evidence is not sufficient to proceed and the investigation is therefore closed," prosecutor Marina Chirakova said in a statement that also did not mention Mbappe by name.
Chirakova said the person in question had not been interrogated and "not been notified of suspicion of a crime".
"I have concluded, based on what has emerged in the case, that new evidence, including interrogations of the person in question, would not change the evidence situation right now," she told AFP.
She said her team had nonetheless "conducted a large number of interviews in the investigation".
Petra Eklund, the lawyer for the plaintiff, whose name has not been disclosed, told AFP she had "no comment" to the news that the case had been closed.
Mbappe's lawyer said in October that he was "shocked" to see his name linked to the investigation.
Speaking for the first time about the case on Sunday, he told French television show Clique he was "not involved".
"I haven't received anything, no summons... I'm not involved," he said.
According to Aftonbladet, Mbappe and his entourage dined at a restaurant one evening before going on to a nightclub.
The complaint was filed on October 12 after the alleged victim had sought medical attention, according to the newspaper.
Expressen reported that police had seized some clothing as evidence, saying it consisted of women's underwear, a pair of black trousers and a black top. Photographs showed police officers leaving the hotel with brown bags.
Difficult season
Mbappe joined Madrid this summer after seven years at Paris Saint-Germain and has stayed clear of scandal in his private life.
The forward, who is known for carefully managing his image through a close network of family, lawyers and spokespeople, has become one of the world's highest paid players after a stellar career that began when he was barely into his teens.
He has had a difficult season since moving to reigning European champions Real Madrid from PSG in the summer, failing to find his top form.
However the Frenchman scored in Madrid's 3-2 win against Italian side Atalanta on Tuesday which revived Real's flagging bid to regain their Champions League title.
Mbappe won the World Cup as a teenager in 2018 in Russia and scored a hat-trick in the 2022 final in Qatar which France lost on penalties to Lionel Messi's Argentina.
At PSG he was part of a superstar trio with Messi and Brazilian forward Neymar, but the Qatar-owned club were unable to win the Champions League.
(AFP)
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