Mazan rape trial: The public and the press will be able to see photos and videos of the rapes

Reversing the initial decision of its president, the Vaucluse criminal court decided on Friday that the videos and photos broadcast during the debates at the Mazan rape trial will now be broadcast in the presence of the press and the public.

This decision, described as a “victory” by Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers, was announced by the president of the court, Roger Arata, after a debate of almost two hours at the start of the hearing on Friday then a deliberation by the court of 90 minutes.

The broadcast of these images will, however, be preceded by an “announcement allowing sensitive people and minors to leave the room”, specified the magistrate.

Since the start of the trial on September 2 in Avignon, the hearing room has been reserved for the court, the parties and the press, with the public in an adjoining broadcast room. These broadcasts will, however, be “not systematic” and will only take place in cases “strictly necessary for the manifestation of the truth”, at the request of one of the parties, added Arata.

On September 20, at the end of the third week of debates, President Arata banned the broadcast of the images to the public and the press: “Considering that these images are indecent and shocking, this will be done in the presence of only the parties to the trial and the court,” he had decided.

Five days later, Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers, however, again called for the lifting of these restrictions, in the name of the fight she is now waging against sexual violence. And it is on their written conclusions that the parties debated at length before the court on Friday morning.

Ms. Pelicot, raped for ten years by her husband and by dozens of men whom he had recruited on the internet, after he had drugged her with anxiolytics, had opposed the closed session from the start. opening of debates on September 2. And the court initially ruled for completely public debates, until the decision of September 20.

“For Gisèle Pelicot, it is too late, the damage is done,” argued one of her counsel, Me Stéphane Babonneau, on Friday. “But if these same debates, through their publicity, prevent other women from having to go through that, then she will find meaning in her suffering.”

Several lawyers for the 50 co-defendants in this extraordinary trial, however, fiercely opposed the presence of the public and the press during the broadcast of the videos. “Justice does not need that to pass, what is the point of these nauseating projections? We were treated to a screening on a first case. “One film wasn’t enough?”, pleaded Olivier Lantelme, without success.

Videos of the facts concerning some of the accused will be shown on Friday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. after the suspension, announced the president of the court.

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