BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — An Argentine court on Tuesday dropped aggravated sexual assault charges against two professional French rugby players accused of raping a woman after playing a match in the country earlier this year.
The judge in Mendoza, some 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) west of the capital, Buenos Aires, dismissed the case against the 21-year-old athletes, Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jégou, citing insufficient evidence.
“The facts under investigation do not constitute a crime," the court said.
The explosive case began in July, when a 39-year-old Argentine woman filed a police complaint alleging that she was beaten, choked and repeatedly raped by the rugby players in their Mendoza hotel room.
The rugby players have admitted to having sex with the plaintiff — whom they met at during an alcohol-fueled club night after their July 7 victory against Argentina’s Pumas — but insisted that the encounter was consensual. They were held in preventive custody, then placed under house arrest, for a month.
The defense said the dismissal reinforced their faith in the justice system.
“I think it will be a turning point,” Germán Hnatow, an attorney representing one of the two players, told Radio Mitre Mendoza, a local radio station. "There are many false accusations in terms of sexual crimes, in terms of gender violence, which cause harm.”
The plaintiff can appeal the ruling. She has not said whether she intends to and her defense lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
Over the past few months, the case slowly unraveled as the defense punched holes in the woman’s description of events. Citing questionable evidence presented before the court — including WhatsApp voice messages the plaintiff sent to her friend joking and boasting about the rough sex she had with them — the prosecution in September approved the athletes' return to France under certain conditions.
The plaintiff's lawyer has explained any inconsistencies in her account as the result of her “shock and extreme stress.” She underwent physical examinations as part of the investigation and was found to have an acute bleeding ulcer and other injuries that she claimed were related to her assault.
Dragging on for several months, the investigation has stunned the French rugby world. The French Rugby Federation expressed its “relief and satisfaction" with the judge's decision. It said the athletes, who had been suspended due to the seriousness of the allegations, would be eligible to return to the national team “if their sporting performances allow for it.”
It wasn't the only scandal to hit the touring French team during its stay in Argentina. The federation separately fined and suspended French fullback Melvyn Jaminet for 34 weeks over a racist outburst that he posted on social media.
The federation said that this close shave with the law served as a reminder “of the need to create new conditions to prevent and avoid risky behavior in high-level rugby, in order to train responsible and exemplary players.”
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