The public prosecutor began its requisitions as part of the Mazan rape trial this Monday, November 25. He requested 20 years of criminal imprisonment against Dominique Pelicot.
More than two months after the opening of the Mazan rape trial, the prosecution's submissions against Dominique Pelicot and his co-defendants, most of whom were prosecuted for aggravated rape, began this Monday, November 25.
“Let justice be done,” Gisèle Pelicot told the press as she left the court, when asked about her expectations at the end of this day.
The public prosecutor first requested the maximum sentence, i.e. 20 years of criminal imprisonment, against Dominique Pelicot for his “despicable actions”, namely, between 2011 and 2020, having drugged, raped and had his wife raped by dozens of men now aged 26 to 74 recruited on the internet via the site Coco.fr, now banned.
“20 years is both a lot and too little”
“20 years is both a lot because it's 20 years of a life, whatever its age, it's not nothing. But it's both a lot and too little. Too little at the same time. considering the seriousness of the acts which were committed and repeated”, insisted Laure Chabaud, second representative of the public prosecutor to speak Monday morning before the criminal court of Vaucluse, in Avignon.
This sentence was expected to the extent that Dominique Pelicot, 71, never hid his responsibility, and even described himself as a “rapist” last September.
For ten years, from July 2011 to October 2020, the septuagenarian had hit his wife with anxiolytics and then raped her and delivered her, at their marital home in Mazan (Vaucluse) to dozens of men, now aged 26 at 74, whom he had recruited via the site Coco.fr, now banned.
The prosecution then requested a prison sentence of 17 years against Jean-Pierre M., the only accused among the 51 in the Mazan rape case not to be prosecuted for sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot, but on his own wife.
The verdict expected no later than December 20
The representatives of the public prosecutor continued their indictment, scheduled for three days, with less serious cases first. Joseph C., 69 years old, prosecuted for “sexual assault in a meeting on the night of June 9 to 10, 2020”, 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 -there. Four years in prison were requested against him.
Between 10 and 13 years of criminal imprisonment were required for the other co-defendants whose cases were studied this Monday. Several defense lawyers accused the prosecution of requesting “in the name of public opinion” and not “in the name of society”, describing the sentences requested for these first co-defendants as “staggering” and “out of proportion”. Dominique Pelicot.
18 of the accused, including Dominique Pelicot, appear detained. 32 others appear free, the last, on the run, being tried in absentia. The verdict in this emblematic trial of sexual violence and chemical submission is expected no later than December 20.
