For two days, the two wooden doors remained closed to the courtroom. Inside, the voices of the magistrates, the accused, the victim resonated for two days, Monday and Tuesday November 26, 2024 in privacy. Until the verdict: a 42-year-old man was sentenced to ten years of criminal imprisonment for rape of a resident of his village in northern Indre. The doors open and the 20-year-old young woman agrees to say a few words. She had requested the closed session without hesitation.
“Everything is reviewed in detail, even what seems to us to be minimal”
“It's hard enough to live without there being a whole bunch of people behind, in the roomshe shares. In public it would have been much more difficult to speak.” “Everything is reviewed in detail, even what seems to us to be minimal. Fortunately someone (France Victim 36) was with uscontinues the young woman, otherwise I would have run away”. She had accepted her mother's presence: “I think she learned a lot of details about the case that she didn't know. »
Kilometers from Châteauroux, in September 2024, before the Vaucluse criminal court, Gisèle Pélicot chose to close the closed session on the case of multiple rapes and chemical submission for which her husband, Dominique Pélicot, is being tried, and fifty men. A message to convey: “The shame is not ours to have, it’s theirs. »
“We come back to the facts with great precision”
More than a matter of shame, Me Julio Odetti, who defended the young Indrian for two days, underlines the notion of intimacy which slows down even more “four women out of five” to close the closed session. “During the debates, we return to the facts with great precision. For the victims, it is already very difficult to relive everything during the trial. So, knowing that unknown people will be there when we ask them questions about their sexual intimacy… draft Me Odette. For us lawyers, this doesn't change much. We are used to pleading in public. For them, this changes everything, even if, in reality, there are rarely people at this type of audience. » By requesting a closed session, victims are saving themselves months of additional apprehension.
In his career, Me Odetti has seen only rare rape trials held publicly. “The victims who do not request a closed session, want the publicity of the trial to be part of the sentence: “I want him to be ashamed, for everyone to know what he did to me,” he observes. There are very few in a career. »
The convicted person, who denied the facts throughout the trial, has ten days to appeal the decision.
“This file shows the evolution of the legal world”
The rape case committed between June 24 and 25, 2023 was judged over two days, Monday and Tuesday November 26, 2024, the following year: “This trial was held relatively quickly. A little over a year after the incidentunderlines Me Julio Odetti, lawyer for the civil party. In the criminal court setting, the facts judged often dated back two or three years. This file shows the evolution of the legal world. It shows that with the establishment of criminal courts, we have reduced delays. This is in the interest of the victims. »
The first session of the Indre criminal court was held in October 2023. This court is capable of judging criminal acts which carry sentences of 15 to 20 years' imprisonment. The accused are judged there by professional magistrates.
