Civil party, the lawyer is the first to plead for Gisèle Pelicot and her family, after the last interrogation of the main accused. The second pleading for the victims, that of Me Stéphane Babonneau, must take place at the beginning of the afternoon.
“Gisèle Pelicot chose to transform this mud into noble material, and to go beyond the darkness of her history to find meaning in it. She is counting on the court to help her.” pleads this Wednesday, November 20 at the trial of the rapes of Mazan Me Antoine Camus, first of the two lawyers of the civil party to plead in favor of the septuagenarian raped for ten years, under chemical submission, by her husband and by the 50 other co-defendants judged by the Vaucluse criminal court.
A trial that is already being described as historic
In one hour, the lawyer, who speaks for Gisèle, her children and her grandchildren, expressed his concern to be “at the height of the courage and dignity they have shown throughout these months” in this trial “which we already qualify as historic”.
“IThey made the immediate but thoughtful choice to support Gisèle Pelicot in this almost political gesture of refusing the closed session. We had to find meaning, open the doors of this room to as many people as possible, make of our debates the breeding ground for an awareness, a change of mentality and finally break with a violence that we would like from another age”.
70 individuals within a 70 km radius
And the lawyer questions what this extraordinary affair reveals. “How in France in 2024 can a woman still suffer what was inflicted on Gisèle Pelicot for 10 years? How can we find 70 individuals within a 70 km radius to take advantage of an inert body, without consciousness, which 'you'd think you were dead?'
Me Antoine Camus questions the shortcomings of our law in this matter. “LThe legal qualifications are far too insufficient, too narrow to address this issue in the fullness of its horror. As if there was a form of blindness in our law that did not push the imagination of the abject far enough. NIs this not more a question of a mass rape, committed over nearly ten years? This qualification does not exist. Yet everyone at least when leaving this house of horror understood that others had passed before and still others after, no one saw fit to notify the police, there have been more than 200 rapes in ten years.”
The Banality of Evil by Hannah Arendt
“Everyone contributed to this atrocity. It'sis the banality of Hanna Arendt's evil, which takes the form of a rape of opportunity and cowardice. There is no offense for that even though that is what it is all about.”
Another gap: the knowledge we have of the criminal activities of Dominique Pelicot, who admitted to an attempted rape in 1999 in the Paris region, and says that he only began to chemically subjugate his wife in 2010. “Our customers find it a little hard to believe that in 1999 and 2011 Dominique Pelicot left to play majong or learn sewing, they expect everything, consumed by the anxiety of discovering more, and for years. “
“Our customers find it a little hard to believe that between 1999 and 2010 Dominique Pelicot went to play Mahjong or learn sewing, they expect everything, consumed by the anxiety of discovering more, and for years .”
The Weapon of Chemical Submission
“Chemical submission is nothing more than the modus operandi of the perfect crime. Gisèle Pelicot did not wake up on a sidewalk with a swollen face or in a bed next to a stranger. She woke up every morning next to the man who had shared her life for 50 years. How can we imagine that danger comes from within at the heart of a secure home? NOur clients look like all the women who took to the stand in support of the accused. They didn't see anything either, they all fell from a height.”
The lawyer also did not mince his words in the face of the attitude of several lawyers for the accused towards Gisèle Pelicot.
The attitude of certain defense lawyers criticized
“The accused have the choice of what they say and their line of defense, it is their ultimate freedom. But we also have the freedom to say what we think about this line of defense, to be surprised that in France we have still the obligation to go through the demonstration that one is a good victim. Yesterday we slipped into a form of mistreatment in the courtroom. They came to tell us, barking at her, that she would have been blind to the signals for 50 years, a blindness such that she would be responsible for the rapes she suffered since she could have avoided them. Some of these defense strategies no longer have their place in France in the 21st century.”
Last point that Mr. Antoine Camus underlines on the lessons to be learned from the trial, beyond the world fame acquired today by Gisèle Pelicot: “Tout rape victims do not have the chance to be carried to their trial each morning with applause and to leave with a guard of honor. LThe vast majority of victims experience this ordeal alone, locked in the room with their rapist. If our debates are a laboratory, they will surely provide further food for thought.”
The second civil party pleading, that of Me Stéphane Babonneau, will take place at the beginning of the afternoon this Wednesday, November 20, before the indictment from Monday, November 25.
