“You had very harsh words against my clients, the accused. Not against Mr. Pelicot. Why is it so difficult for you to have a very clear position?”asks Nadia El Bouroumi, defense lawyer. After delivering his last words to the Vaucluse criminal court, Tuesday, November 19, considering that the Mazan rape trial “is the trial of cowardice”, Gisèle Pelicot was questioned for more than an hour by the opposing party, in a tense atmosphere. Almost all of the questions went in one and the same direction: the supposedly ambiguous relationship that the victim had with her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot. A man whom she sometimes condemns, but with whom she would be complacent, at other times, according to the defense.
“Were you there when I spoke to him?” retorts the septuagenarian to Nadia El Bouroumi, in reference to her testimony at the bar on October 23. “I said I was betrayed and asked him when he allowed people into my home.”she reports. The lawyer considers that Dominique Pelicot betrayed her more than the rest of the accused, because of the bond of trust which united the couple. “He never denied anything, unlike your clients”replies Gisèle Pelicot, alluding to the fact that the majority of the accused do not recognize the facts of rape. Unlike her ex-husband.
Nadia El Bouroumi continues, on another ground. “I took the time during the hearings to look at you and see when you were crying or not. The only time you cried was when we talked about Mr. Pelicot’s childhood,” she says. The victim was, however, marked by other moments of emotion during the trial, as noted by franceinfo. “I think you are under the influence [de Dominique Pelicot] very strong, still today”, points out the lawyer, in a packed courtroom.
Her colleague, Carine Monzat, also a defense lawyer, takes over. “You say that you suffered a total of a hundred rapes”she observes, taking up a count made by the victim, which adds up the rapes committed against her by Dominique Pelicot and by the accused. “If I count it today, it’s more like 200 rapes,” precise the retiree. The lawyer notes that Dominique Pelicot spontaneously admitted that he raped Gisèle Pelicot “two to three times a week”. “So, in one year alone, we have more than 1,400 rapes for him alone”argues Carine Monzat, recalling that Dominique Pelicot was her main attacker. A way of distancing the involvement of the other accused.
Then Nadia El Bouroumi takes the microphone again. She addresses the two other cases in which Dominique Pelicot is indicted: an attempted rape and a murder preceded by rape, in the 1990s. Before addressing his ex-wife: “You don't say to yourself, 'Actually, my whole life is a lie?' asks the lawyer head-on. The latter is clearly trying to shake up the victim and remind people that Dominique Pelicot manipulated his wife for fifty years. The objective being to show that he was able to do the same with the 50 co-defendants. Almost all claim to have been fooled by the retiree, who allegedly promised them a libertine plan with his consenting wife.
“Even today, he is so strong that you can forgive him and find extenuating circumstances for him!” launches Nadia El Bouroumi. “When would I have forgiven Mr. Pelicot? Never!” retorts Gisèle Pelicot, raising her voice. “There are not only words. There is non-verbal”, points out the lawyer, before noting the fact that her daughter, Caroline Darian, left the courtroom a few minutes before. For Nadia El Bouroumi, this is proof that she cannot stand her mother's ambiguity on certain subjects.
Stéphane Babonneau, lawyer for the civil party, intervenes, deploring that his client is “martyrized”. Gisèle Pelicot repeats in vain that it is not “an intra-family trial”the questions constantly come back to the comments made by the members of his family, who did not mince their words to condemn their father's behavior.
Defense lawyers also question him about “signals” that Gisèle Pelicot could have seen according to them. The first conviction of Dominique Pelicot, in 2010, is mentioned: he had filmed under the skirts of women in a supermarket, as in September 2020, when he was caught in the act in a Leclerc store in Carpentras. Gisèle Pelicot clarified on several occasions that he had then hidden these facts from her. “If I had been informed, I would have gained ten years. Either I would have made the decision to leave, or he would have been followed.”she assures.
A lawyer insists, stressing that his son Florian noticed that his father was visiting pornographic sites. “I was not informed of this”she said. “And your daughter-in-law who catches Mr. Pelicot masturbating?” continues the lawyer. “I learned it much later,” she says.
A lawyer is finally surprised that she wants to keep the Pelicot name. “I don't want my grandchildren to be ashamed of having this name. I am known throughout the world, regardless of my will. We will remember Madame Pelicot, much less Mr. Pelicot. We will remember grandmother, by Gisèle Pelicot”she hopes, at the end of this final grueling interrogation.
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