Saccording to the French media, the Marseille suspect, who already has 13 convictions in his criminal record for theft, violence and various offenses, was identified thanks to a video found in the computer of Dominique Pelicot, the main accused in this chemical submission case. and rape of his wife Gisèle.
Investigators, using facial recognition software, discovered that Hassan O., who presented himself under the pseudonym “Remy” on the dating site Coco.fr, on which Pelicot made contact with men to offer to rape her woman after having drugged her, appeared in a video showing him sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot, then unconscious, on the night of March 6 to 7, 2018, in Mazan.
After locating his trace in Romania, his partner’s country of origin, in September 2021, the police managed to contact Hassan O. The suspect then declared himself to be in Morocco, refusing to return to French territory. An arrest warrant for aggravated rape had been issued against him.
Meanwhile, the criminal court of Vaucluse, where the commune of Mazan is located, delivered its verdict for the other accused. Dominique Pelicot, central figure in the case, was sentenced to the maximum sentence of 20 years of criminal imprisonment with a two-thirds security period, thus following the request of the prosecution in its indictment at the end of November.
He was found guilty of drugging his ex-wife, now 72, with anxiolytics between 2011 and 2020, to deliver her to dozens of men recruited on the Internet. The other 49 defendants were all found guilty, with sentences ranging from three years’ imprisonment, two of which were suspended, to 13 years’ imprisonment.
(with AFP)
