“Shame must change sides.” It was with these words that the lawyer of Gisèle Pélicot, victim of chemical submission, confirmed his client’s desire to refuse the closed-door trial of her husband, Dominique Pélicot.
The man, a retiree tried in Avignon, is accused of having drugged his wife, and of having recruited dozens of strangers online to rape her, taking advantage of her unconsciousness. And this, for at least 10 years.
The prosecution had requested a closed hearing.
As is often the case in the context of sexual crimes, the Avignon public prosecutor’s office had requested that the trial take place behind closed doors, recalling that videos of the events would “necessarily be viewed” and that “not only would the publicity of the proceedings be dangerous but [elle] would also undermine the dignity of people.”
Video. Caroline Darian: “He drugged her with sleeping pills and anxiolytics to rape her. For me, my father no longer exists”
An argument that Gisèle Pélicot, supported by the couple’s three children, decided to speak out against. “Even if there will be extremely difficult times, I don’t have to hide or be ashamed,” she said in comments reported by Franceinfo.
The unconditional support of Internet users
Gisèle Pélicot’s choice is rare, even if it is not totally unprecedented. When she was a minor, the journalist Claudine Cordani had also refused a closed-door interview. On X, the latter specified: “It was not a matter of courage, but of an intimate conviction: if rapists could change the course of our lives by their crime of rape, then we could name them and show them to society. So that society knows. And so that shame changes sides.”
On the X platform, many French Internet users, but also from all over the world, have expressed their support to the courageous complainant. For them, the fact that she refuses a closed trial, during which images of her rapes under chemical submission will be broadcast, demonstrates her resilience and her desire to change things.
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