Court passes sentence in French mass rape trial

On By Pranco

Avignon (France) (AFP) – With evidence emerging in the trial of a man who drugged his wife for years so he could invite dozens of strangers to abuse her, French prosecutors will present their sentencing requests to judges from Monday.

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Main defendant Dominique Pelicot has been in the dock in the southern city of Avignon since September together with 49 other men for organizing the rapes and sexual abuse of his now ex-wife Gisele Pelicot.

The case has shocked a France still in the throes of its version of the MeToo movement, with the latest demonstrations calling for greater protection against sexual violence drawing out tens of thousands of people on Saturday.

Its impact has spread across the world, with 57 of 138 media organizations from outside France reporting on the trial.

On Thursday, the president of Chile’s parliament praised the “courage and dignity” of Gisele Pelicot, calling her “an ordinary citizen who taught the whole world a lesson.”

In addition to Dominique Pelicot, who has admitted to all charges, prosecutors must decide on appropriate possible sentences for the other suspects, men aged 26 to 74 and from all walks of life.

Many argued in court that they believed Dominique Pelicot’s claim that they were participating in a libertine fantasy, in which his then-wife had consented to sexual contact and only pretended to be asleep.

Among them, 33 have also claimed that they were not of sound mind when they assaulted or raped Gisele Pelicot – a defense not supported by any of the psychological reports prepared by court-appointed experts.

According to the court’s agenda, criminal requests will take three full days, with prosecutors themselves estimating an average of 15 minutes per suspect.

As eleven weeks of hearings on the facts of the case came to a close last week, Gisele Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus, called for “truth and justice” to be served to the plaintiff and to her three children, David, Caroline and Florian. stepchildren Celine and Aurore, and her grandchildren.

The court’s five judges will not rule on the sentences until the end of December.

Maximum 20 years

The aggravated rape charges against most suspects carry a maximum sentence of 20 years.

As the orchestrator of the abuse of his ex-wife, it appears that Dominique Pelicot will receive the full punishment.

He himself has said he wants to go to prison for regularly drugging Gisele Pelicot with anti-anxiety drugs from July 2011 to October 2020, leaving her vulnerable to abuse by strangers recruited online.

Dominique Pelicot extensively documented the crimes in photos and videos that were later discovered by police after he was caught filming women’s skirts in public.

Prosecutors can also seek the maximum sentence for co-defendant Jean-Pierre M., now 63 years old, who used Dominique Pelicot’s practices against his own wife by raping her twelve times, sometimes in Pelicot’s presence.

Of the remaining suspects, 35 completely deny that they participated in a rape.

Observers will be watching to see whether prosecutors seek harsher sentences for those who came to rape Gisele Pelicot multiple times (some as many as six) than for those who responded to Dominique Pelicot’s invitation just once.

After Dominique Pelicot, two men accused of sexual assault and attempted rape will first be dealt with by prosecutors, before moving on to the defendants on trial for rape.

From Wednesday afternoon or Thursday it will be the turn of the defense lawyers, with Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, first.

The judges are expected to rule on the sentence no later than December 20.

© 2024 AFP