For an hour, Monday morning, the accused in the Mazan rape trial took turns uttering their last words. Since then, the president of the Vaucluse criminal court and the five magistrates who surround him have worked together to decide the sentence that will be handed down for each, based on their “intimate conviction”as provided for in the code of criminal procedure.
For weeks, the French and foreign media have been pressing the Avignon court to find out the date on which the verdict will fall, in order to organize their arrival from Spain, Germany, England, the Netherlands, and even Canada, Brazil or the United States. According to the president of the court, it will be handed down on Thursday December 19 at 9:30 a.m. But “it could be delayed by half a day, or even a day”.
In total, 172 media, including 82 foreigners, are accredited for the event, the prosecution told franceinfo. Problem: In addition to the defendants and their lawyers, the courtroom will host a large contingent of law enforcement. The two benches and a few chairs usually reserved for journalists will all be taken. Only three media outlets – AFP, La Provence and franceinfo – will be able to access the audience, responsible for relaying what is happening there. Two broadcast rooms should be made available to other journalists to follow the debates. The public will probably not be able to attend, which many regret.
Several regulars, who have followed the trial since its beginnings, said they still planned to go to the court area “to see the atmosphere”. Which risks being particularly tense. “A welcoming committee” of around thirty members of the feminist collective Amazones d’Avignon intend to speak out when the accused arrive. “We’re going to make some noise”warns one of its activists, specifying that “two banners” carried out in response to a previous one which called for “twenty years [de détention] for everyone”should be hung on the ramparts facing the court. The collective, however, declares that it is committed to finding “the right tone” in these banners, in particular “towards families” of the accused.
They should make the trip, since the 32 accused who appear free are preparing for the possibility of spending Christmas in prison. The attorneys general have, in fact, systematically requested a warrant of committal against them. Everyone is instructed to arrive with a bag containing their belongings. The mother of one accused, who came to attend the pleadings, was already in tears last week at the idea that her son could return to detention.
“They always have a hope of escaping it. But I have not preserved them: we know that the sentences handed down can be heavy, it’s a big risk”estimates lawyer Antoine Minier, concerning his three clients, Paul G., Saifeddine G., and Abdelali D. Ten years in prison were requested against the first two and thirteen against the third, who admitted having gone twice in Mazan. All have already served between six months and a year and a half in pre-trial detention. “They left two or three years ago, they found a daily life, their partner, their job… It’s very hard psychologically to go back”he emphasizes, adding that many fear being the target of physical and verbal violence in prison, “the rapist being very frowned upon, at the bottom of the food chain”.
If they are found guilty of the aggravated rape for which they are being prosecuted, the accused could be handcuffed directly to the bar, and taken into custody one by one, as the sentences are announced. The Avignon-Le Pontet penitentiary center, overcrowded, “has already announced that they will not be able to take anyone”assures a well-informed defense lawyer. The accused should therefore be distributed “between the Baumettes [à Marseille], the Aix-Luynes penitentiary center, the Nîmes remand center, and that of Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone”predicts Patrick Gontard, who represents an accused.
However prepared they are, “some [accusés] are impulsive, they could lose their temper”, fears one of his colleagues, who prefers to remain anonymous. “We expect incidents,” he adds. In the opinion of several lawyers, all have accumulated “a lot of tension” with the media coverage of the trial, and even more since the requisitions, which “them rang”.
In order to avoid any excess, the court ensures that a “reinforcement of police force” is planned. It is also about“ensure filtering at the exterior entrance“. Moreover,“the rules of the prison administration always provide for three guards per incarcerated accused”, specify several defense lawyers. That is, 150 agents potentially mobilized to take charge of the 18 accused already detained and the 32 others, in the event of conviction.
When listing the penalties pronounced against each accused, the criminal court must give reasons for its decision, that is to say, proceed to “the statement of the main elements against” against each accused, as provided for in the code of criminal procedure. All are being prosecuted for aggravated rape (with the exception of Joseph C., 69 years old, the only one to appear for sexual assault committed in a meeting).
The president may decide to read the reasons at the hearing or simply declare that he is making them available to the lawyers. If he reads them one by one, the verdict could last all day. Or, a more probable hypothesis according to Patrick Gontard, “it could only read a single global motivation for all the accused, centered on the notion of absence of consent of the victim”. If acquittals are pronounced, however, it will be necessary to motivate them individually. The defense pleaded to this effect for around thirty accused, considering that they were not aware of committing rape against Gisèle Pelicot at the time of the events, and that they were under the influence of Dominique Pelicot.
The public prosecutor, who considers on the contrary that “lack of consent [de Gisèle Pelicot] could not be ignored by the accused”, demanded ten to eighteen years of criminal imprisonment against them. Taking turns at the bar for two and a half weeks, their councils rebelled against requisitions “unreasonable, inconsistent and above all unfair”, launched Louis-Alain Lemaire, who represents four defendants. “The price of rape in Avignon ranges from seven to twelve years of imprisonment, depending on the seriousness of the facts”slips one of his colleagues, who hopes that the judges will align with this quantum.
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