The trial of the 51 men tried for raping a woman, drugged by her husband, should not be held behind closed doors. Despite the atrocity of the acts she suffered, Gisèle the victim, a septuagenarian, does not want “the shame to change sides”.
Should a victim of sexual violence agree to expose her private life to the general public so as not to allow her attackers to remain in the shadows? While the trial known as the “multiple rapes of Mazan” opens this Monday, September 2, the main victim, Gisèle, a septuagenarian, should not request a closed hearing, according to our information. The public and journalists should thus be able to attend these four months of hearings during which justice will have to judge particularly atrocious facts.
The closed session, this restricted publicity of the debates that will be held in this room of the departmental criminal court of Vaucluse, would have been granted, by right, to Gisèle in view of the facts judged. This is the case in many rape trials. In this trial, the accusations are particularly sordid: rapes perpetrated over a period of ten years by dozens of men – 50 will be judged – all orchestrated by her husband who drugged her before delivering her to these strangers at the couple’s home. Totally knocked out by the medication she had ingested, Gisèle had no memory.
For Gisèle, by refusing to go behind closed doors, it is a question of “rebalancing the room” and making this atmosphere less “hostile”. If during the investigation, most of the accused expressed their regret towards this abused woman, reduced to the state of an object thanks to a chemical submission stratagem, the fact remains that the septuagenarian will find herself facing 51 men who will be in the dock. Gisèle will certainly be able to count on the support of her three children – her daughter and her two daughters-in-law are also civil parties – “she realized that by requesting to go behind closed doors, it also means finding herself only facing her attackers”, explains a source close to the case.
“Don’t spare them”
Claudine Cordani was the first underage rape victim in France to refuse to be heard in camera. In 1985, she was alone against her three attackers. She did not tell her parents, in order to protect them, that a year earlier, she had been raped, once along the Canal de l’Ourcq in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, then sequestered, tortured and gang-raped again in an apartment. Claudine was 17 years old. The rule then was that the trial be held behind closed doors. But when it opened before the Paris Assize Court – rape has been considered a crime in the eyes of the law since 1980 – the young woman refused.
“I never felt ashamed, it wasn’t up to me to be ashamed,” Claudine Cordani told BFMTV.com.
And to detail: “From the moment these men entered my private life, I wanted to shine the spotlight on them, to make them ashamed. I did not want to spare them, because I was not spared.”
Claudine’s name was anonymized during the trial, she was called Caroline. “I forgot about the public during the trial,” she confided. “Of course it was hard to tell what happened in court, to reveal my private life, but my concern at that time was that these men would go to prison.”
The “liberating” effect of the public
Me Anne Bouillon sees the presence of the public as a “liberating” effect for victims. The Nantes lawyer, who specializes in supporting victims of sexual violence, advises her clients not to ask for a closed hearing. “Experience shows that the presence of other people changes nothing for victims, on the contrary, the public is a catalyst, it is often a moment when people can speak out,” explains the criminal lawyer. “They can call on the justice system and society to witness what they have experienced.” The important thing for the victim is to prepare them.
Claudine Cordani remembers the kindness of the judge who heard her case. “I was very lucky,” she recalls. “He explained to me what was going to happen, he showed me around an empty courtroom to get me used to it. I felt protected because I was prepared.” However, she says she was put under pressure by those close to the accused. Despite everything, she refused to go to court in camera. Today, she doesn’t want to talk about “courage” but about “conviction.”
Fighting against “societal denial”
A few years ago, there was the emblematic trial of the rape in Aix-en-Provence, a case that led to rape being considered a crime. One of the battles led by the lawyer Gisèle Halimi who defended the victims in this case where two tourists were raped and tortured for several hours in Marseille.
The famous lawyer made it a political trial by not requesting a closed hearing. The atmosphere was electric. Gisèle Halimi, her assistant, was insulted and even slapped in front of the doors of the courthouse. Two years later, the rape was then considered a crime. It was tried by a criminal court and the perpetrators risked ten years of criminal imprisonment.
“By refusing to go behind closed doors, it was also the idea that there would be no filter between what happens in society and society itself,” says Claudine Cordani.
The private is political, launched the feminist movements in the 60s. “Justice must be rendered in public, this guarantees democratic functioning”, adds Me Anne Bouillon. “In addition, very often, cases of sexual violence have a political dimension.” In the case of the multiple rapes in Mazan, there is “the idea that it is the husband who is the owner of his wife’s body, and it is this idea that must be fought”, continues the lawyer.
For both women, holding rape trials, as will be the case in Vaucluse, before a departmental criminal chamber “impoverishes” society’s knowledge of these sexual crimes and “establishes a filter”. The publicity of the debates is “however the best way to combat societal denial”, concludes Claudine Cordani.
