French rugby players' rape case dismissed in Argentina

A top court in Argentina's Mendoza province on Thursday dismissed rape charges against French rugby players Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, upholding rulings from two lower courts, a lawyer for the accuser said.

Jegou and Auradou were arrested in July 2024, two days after winning their first international caps for France against Argentina in the western city of Mendoza. Jegou, a La Rochelle flanker, was 21 at the time, and Auradou, a Pau forward, was 20.

A 39-year-old woman they met in a nightclub after the match accused them of assaulting her in a hotel room. Auradou and Jegou said they had consensual sex with the woman after a night of drinking.

The players were held in preventive custody for more than a week in Mendoza and then under house arrest for nearly a month before being allowed to return to France after prosecutors said the case against them was weak.

The charges were dismissed and the decision was later upheld by an appeals court. After the Supreme Court of Mendoza province also rejected the case, the accuser's lawyer, Natacha Romano, said her client now aimed to appeal to Argentina's Supreme Court in Buenos Aires.