Non-prosecution order confirmed for Jegou and Auradou: Mendoza Supreme Court rejects appeal
Mendoza's Supreme Court upheld on Thursday the non-prosecution order for French rugby players Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, accused of rape in 2024. The complainant has announced an appeal to Argentina's national Supreme Court.
Jegou-Auradou case: third consecutive non-prosecution confirmation in Argentina
The Supreme Court of Mendoza province confirmed on Thursday 3 September the non-prosecution order in favour of French rugby players Oscar Jegou and Hugo Auradou, according to TF1 Info, citing Ms Natacha Romano, the complainant's lawyer. This is the third consecutive decision in favour of the two players since the events occurred in 2024.
On the instructions of her client and the client's family, Ms Romano announced the filing of an "extraordinary appeal" to Argentina's national Supreme Court in Buenos Aires.
The facts and judicial proceedings
Jegou and Auradou, who were respectively 21 and 20 years old at the time of the events, had been put under investigation in early July 2024 for "aggravated rape in a group" involving a 39-year-old Argentine national, in their hotel room in Mendoza, following an alcohol-fuelled evening after a France XV match against the Pumas. The players' defence maintained that the sexual relations were consensual; the complainant asserted instead that they were non-consensual and had been extremely violent.
In December 2024, after five months of investigation, a first-instance judge ordered the abandonment of proceedings, in accordance with the prosecutor's recommendations. In February 2025, Mendoza's appeals court upheld this non-prosecution order, concluding there was an "absence of elements allowing a serious accusation to be substantiated".
The cassation appeal and the July hearing
Ms Romano then filed a cassation appeal with the provincial Supreme Court. At the July hearing, she argued for the annulment of the non-prosecution order and the reopening of proceedings, citing a "flawed investigation" and "irregular expert procedure". Jegou and Auradou followed the hearing by videoconference from New Zealand, where they were at the time with the France XV.
Present at the hearing, the complainant directly challenged the players' Argentine lawyer, Mr Rafael Cuneo Libarona, brother of the former Argentine Justice Minister who served from 2023 to 2026. "How much did you receive from France? How much did you pay the prosecutors?", she asked him. The lawyer left without responding.
The two players' French lawyer, Mr Antoine Vey, stated after the appeals decision that the case was "definitively decided", unless one adopted an "irrational" approach to the file. The provincial Supreme Court's decision does not alter this assessment on the merits, but the procedure now continues at the national level.
Source: TF1 Info