Dominique Pelicot's lawyer assures that her client “did not understand his sentence”

Me Béatrice Zavarro assures that, for the moment, no decision has been made on this subject and that she must meet her client in the days to come.

Will there be a second act to the Mazan trial? The day after Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison at the end of four months of this trial which became a symbol of violence against women, his lawyer, Me Béatrice Zavarro, assured Friday December 20 on the set of “C à vous” on France 5 that his client had “not understood his sentence” and that the decision on a possible appeal had not yet been made.

“I spoke about it with him and I have to go meet him to discuss the issues of a potential appeal procedure. At the same time, I say it humbly, filing an appeal would undermine the respect that we owe this woman. I'm not sure he wants to put her through that on top of everything else,” she said.

“These are elements of discussions that we will have soon and we will make a future decision. For the moment, no decision has been taken,” she adds.

Gisèle Pelicot is “not afraid”

During this speech, the lawyer also wanted to pay tribute to Gisèle Pelicot. “It’s not because I defend Dominique Pelicot that I had to criticize Gisèle’s fight, quite the contrary.”

“It is very courageous to open the doors of the trial. The societal, political and global momentum is due to his decision,” she insists.

For her part, Gisèle Pelicot is “not afraid” of a new trial, in the event of an appeal by one or more of those convicted in the Mazan rape trial, and “she would face it”, declared Friday l one of his lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau, on France Inter.

“In any case, she is not afraid of it. That is to say, if it were to happen, she has already told us that she would face it – if she has the health, obviously, since she is a lady who is now 72 years old. But in any case, it doesn't scare her, that's what she told us,” he assured.