From Friday, July 12 to Saturday, July 13, Hugo Auradou and Oscar Jegou spent their second night at the transitional detention center of the Legal Pole in Mendoza, Argentina. Nestled at the foot of the Andes mountains, this ultramodern complex combines old and new detention centers as well as the brand-new buildings of the Criminal Court and the Public Prosecutor's Office.

The two rugby players of the French national team, aged 20 and 21, were charged on Friday with the crime of "sexual assault with penetration, aggravated by the participation of two people." If the outcome of the judicial investigation, which is just beginning, takes them to trial, and they are found guilty, they could be sentenced to between eight and 20 years' imprisonment.

The request for house arrest, lodged by the defense, which considers that "there is no danger of absconding," is under consideration. In the meantime, the pretrial detention will take place in Mendoza and not in France. "It has to be here. The crimes were committed here," Prosecutor's Office spokesman Martin Ahumada told Agence France-Presse.

Arriving shortly after 11 pm the previous day after a 15-hour journey from Buenos Aires, where they had been arrested late on Monday, the two men disembarked from the vehicles that had taken them separately. As they got out, the police officers escorting them placed handcuffs on their wrists, before escorting them to the area where they would spend the night.

The following morning, via a tunnel, they crossed the few meters separating them from the public prosecutor's office for this first appearance before prosecutor Cecilia Bignert during which they chose not to make any statements. "They will make their statement [later], which is coherent and of course very different from what the victim said," one of their lawyers, German Hnatow, told the press after their appearance. "They are calm because they know they are innocent in this case, but they are of course worried about the situation," he added. Through their lawyers, Auradou and Jegou are still proclaiming their innocence in this case, while the two versions of the incident are in conflict.

Following France's victory over Argentina in the first test match of the South American tour, on Saturday, July 6, and after an already excessively drunken first part of the evening, members of the team continued the party at the Wabi Fun Club, a trendy nightclub on the outskirts of the city.

According to Natacha Romano, the complainant's lawyer, after returning to the hotel with Hugo Auradou in a cab, her client experienced almost three hours of total brutality, marked by repeated beatings and rapes between the four walls of room 603 at the Diplomatic Hotel.

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