“I have to pay”: The Mazan rape trial enters its home stretch

After eleven weeks of hearings, the Mazan rape trial enters its final stretch on Monday with the prosecution’s indictments, starting with Dominique Pelicot, this septuagenarian who for ten years drugged, raped and had his wife raped.

The sentences that the representatives of the public prosecutor, Jean-François Mayet and Laure Chabaud, will demand will be scrutinized, as this trial has become a global symbol of the fight against violence against women – the international day of which will, by chance of the calendar, be marked Monday. And the main victim, 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”.

Before the professional magistrates making up the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon, they will begin with the “conductor” of this decade of rapes. Dominique Pelicot, 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 marital home in Mazan between July 2011 and October 2020. Difficult to imagine that they are not demanding against him the maximum sentence, 20 years of criminal imprisonment, on which all the others will depend.

Dominique Pelicot has never hidden his responsibility, calling himself a “rapist”. “I am guilty of what I did (…) I ruined everything, I lost everything. I have to pay,” he said shortly after the start of the trial.

But what sentences will the public prosecutor seek against his 50 co-defendants? Because even if most are prosecuted for the same facts, namely aggravated rape of Gisèle Pelicot, and therefore also risk 20 years in prison, the individualization of sentences is obligatory. For example, to distinguish repeat offenders – ten men came several times – from those who came only once to Mazan.

“Mr. Everyman”

Could these “Mr. Everyman”, aged 26 to 74, legitimately believe that they were participating in the scenario of a libertine couple, where the wife would pretend to be sleeping, as most did? asserted on the stand?

Were they “manipulated” by Dominique Pelicot, as many claim? Or was their discernment impaired at the time of the events, as the lawyers of 33 of them suggested again on Wednesday, even if none of the psychologists or psychiatrists who examined them accepted this point?

Finally, will the prosecution have a heavier hand towards the 35 accused who, at the opening of the trial, still firmly denied having participated in a “rape”, despite the damning videos filmed by Dominique Pelicot and which leave little room for doubt?

According to the official schedule, the indictment is scheduled for three days. But according to information collected from the various parties by AFP, it could end late Wednesday morning, with the prosecution estimating the time it will spend on each accused at around 15 minutes on average.

After the Pelicot case, the prosecution will advance crescendo: first the less serious cases, those of Joseph C., 69 years old, and Hugues M., 39 years old, respectively accused of sexual assault and attempted rape, before tackle the 48 others (including one on the run).

Courage and dignity

Covered almost worldwide, with 138 accredited media including 57 foreigners, the 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”. The day before, it was the German Minister of the Interior, Nancy Faeser, who called to hear “the message” from Gisèle Pelicot.

And this weekend, tens of thousands of people – many women but also men – marched throughout France to demand a “surge” against violence against women, many referring to this extraordinary trial.

After the indictment, Wednesday afternoon or Thursday at the latest, the defense lawyers will have the floor. Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, will open the ball. His colleagues will then follow one another until December 13. The court will then have a week to deliberate, with a verdict expected on December 20 at the latest.