After eleven weeks of hearings, this trial with international resonance is entering its home stretch. The maximum sentence of 20 years of criminal imprisonment was requested Monday against Dominique Pelicot. This septuagenarian had, for a decade, drugged, raped and then had his wife Gisèle raped by dozens of men recruited on the internet in the south-east of France.
Before the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon, attorney general Jean-François Mayet estimated that the heart of this trial was “male domination over women” and that its challenge was to “fundamentally change the relationships between men and women” .
Twenty years, “a lot and too little”
Before the professional magistrates, the public prosecutor began its indictment with the “conductor” of this decade of rapes, Dominique Pelicot, asking for 20 years of imprisonment, the maximum penalty incurred. “It is both a lot and too little. Too little considering the seriousness of the acts which were committed and repeated,” insisted deputy prosecutor Laure Chabaud.
She underlined the “full and complete” responsibility of the septuagenarian, the common denominator of the 50 co-defendants recruited on the internet to whom he had delivered his now ex-wife, previously sedated with anxiolytics, to their home in Mazan between July 2011 and October 2020.
A special date
By coincidence, this indictment begins on the occasion of the international day for the fight against violence against women. This affair “will mark a before and an after”, said French Prime Minister Michel Barnier in this context while traveling to the Women’s House of the Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Paris.
Chemical submission detection kits will be reimbursed by Health Insurance “in several departments” of the country, on an experimental basis and according to a schedule yet to be defined, he announced. Gisèle Pelicot, 71, achieved the status of feminist icon after refusing to allow the trial to take place behind closed doors, “so that the shame changes sides”.
Seventeen years required for another attacker
Against the “disciple” of Dominique Pelicot, Jean-Pierre M., who had reproduced the same procedure on his own wife, 17 years of criminal imprisonment were requested Monday morning. He is the only accused not to be prosecuted for sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot but on his own wife.
The representatives of the public prosecutor’s office continued their indictment on Monday afternoon, scheduled for three days, starting with the less serious cases.
However, significant sentences of up to ten years in prison were requested, including for the rare accused not to be prosecuted for aggravated rape.
Against Joseph C., 69, prosecuted for “sexual assault in a meeting on the night of June 9 to 10, 2020”, four years in prison were thus required. However, he is the only one of the 50 co-defendants not to be prosecuted for rape or attempted aggravated rape, due to lack of erection that day.
Most co-defendants face 20 years
Aged 26 to 74, most of Dominique Pelicot’s co-defendants are being prosecuted for aggravated rape and risk 20 years in prison.
“The absence of consent could not be ignored by the accused,” insisted Deputy Prosecutor Chabaud. Pulling the rug out from under arguments sometimes put forward by certain defense lawyers since the start of the trial on September 2, she assured that it was “not conceivable that Gisèle Pelicot could have voluntarily ingested these anxiolytics”.
The request from the feminist groups, who put up a banner on Sunday evening in front of the court, is very clear: “20 years for each” of the accused.
Trial covered in near-monovision
Covered almost worldwide, with 138 accredited media including 57 foreigners, this trial has an impact well beyond French borders.
As the president of the Chilean Chamber of Deputies, Karol Cariola, testified again on Thursday, saluting the “courage and dignity” of Gisèle Pelicot, “an ordinary citizen who gave a lesson to the whole world”.
Extended complaints system
And this weekend, tens of thousands of people marched throughout France to demand a “start” against violence against women.
Subsequently, on Monday morning, the French government announced the extension of the system allowing women victims of sexual violence to file a complaint in a hospital with an emergency or gynecological department.
After the indictment, the defense will speak until December 13. The verdict is expected on December 20 at the latest.
