the last seven accused examined by the judges

“He’s a great man, I’m waiting for him, I support him” : among the relatives of the last accused heard Tuesday at the Mazan rape trial, in Avignon, support is unwavering, sometimes bordering on denial. Conclusion of a long procession started in September, the examination of the cases of the last seven of the 51 accused in this extraordinary trial began before the criminal court of Vaucluse. Seven men, aged 30 to 69. And it was first their loved ones or the personality investigators who spoke. “I wait for him, I support him, I don’t believe he is capable of committing rape”insists at the bar the companion of Christian L., 55 years old, alias “Chris the Fireman”.

It's with his branded uniform top “Vaucluse Fire Brigade”that the fifty-year-old had been filmed, in February 2019, in the middle of a sexual act on an inert Gisèle Pelicot, knocked out with anxiolytics by her now ex-husband, described as the “conductor” of this extraordinary file. Hundreds of images of child pornography were also found on Christian L.'s computer as well as internet discussion messages about the rape of teenage girls and even little girls.

Same denial among the partner of Nizar H., 40 years old, filmed in October 2020 introducing his penis into the mouth of Gisèle Pelicot, despite her snoring. “I am convinced of his innocence, he never intended to rape this lady, I will not abandon him”insists this young woman of 25 years. “In the family, we are all convinced that he was trapped by this Pelicot, who destroyed our family”continues a sister of the accused. Like Nizar H., Boris M., 37 years old, and Philippe L., 62 years old, maintain having been drugged by Dominique Pelicot, the husband, the one who had recruited them on the internet to come and rape his wife at their home in Mazan (Vaucluse ). “It was my baby, it was my “spoiled” (Editor’s note: my darling). My love has not changed for him”affirms the mother of Philippe L. He would not have “never been able to do that”adds his best friend.

Dominique Pelicot hospitalized again Thursday

Another accused to appear this week, Charly A. was only 21 years old when he went to the Pelicot home for the first time, in 2016. But he then returned five times, until June 2020. “Little talkative”according to the personality investigator, the accused will have to explain himself. On these rapes of Gisèle Pelicot, and on this plan that he would have mentioned, with Dominique Pelicot, of raping his own mother, also drugging her with drugs. A scenario that he would have finally given up on. Nicolas F., a 43-year-old journalist, was the “good friend”endowed “a dark humor that he handles with finesse”. But he was also a secretive person, revealing nothing about his private life. Beyond the rape of Gisèle Pelicot, he will also be questioned about the child pornography images found on his computer.

The last of the accused in this case whose case will be studied this week, Joseph C., 69 years old, is the only one not to be accused of rape or attempted rape, but of sexual assault only, for failure to have penetrated Gisèle Pelicot. For this he faces seven years in prison, compared to 20 years for the 50 other defendants. Initially, these seven accused should have been heard in mid-September. But the study of their cases had been postponed due to the health problems encountered by Dominique Pelicot in the first week of the debates which began on September 2.

And this week again their testimony could be disrupted by the state of the main accused, 71 years old, who will be hospitalized again on Thursday in Marseille. A new suspension of the trial is not excluded, warned the president of the court, Roger Arata. If the provisional timetable were maintained, and if Dominique Pelicot's hospitalization only lasted one day, the accused would have to be heard on the facts on Friday, or even Monday, after the hearings of expert psychiatrists and then psychologists on Wednesday and Thursday. From next week, it would then be the start of the pleadings of the civil parties, then the indictment and finally the defense lawyers. Before a verdict expected on December 20.