“Jean-Pierre M., Jacques C., Cyrille D., Lionel R., Christian L., Charly A…” The president of the Vaucluse criminal court calls on each accused in turn to pronounce their last words, Monday, December 16, before the deliberation of the Mazan rape trial. “We have reached the stage of the debates where we can consider that the investigation into the case has been completed,” says Roger Arata, at the opening of the fifteenth and final week of the trial, at the Avignon judicial court.
The 50 accused present – one is on the run, and will be judged in absentia – each stand up in turn, with the exception of Dominique Pelicot, who regrets in passing that his seated posture, for health reasons, was interpreted “like a lack of respect” by some defense lawyers. The main accused in this vicious trial, he is the first to speak, from his box, dressed in his eternal gray jogging jacket. He once again apologizes to his family and assures that he feels “an inner shame”, buried behind “the shell” that he created himself.
“I have nothing to add”conclude most of the 18 other men who appear detained from their box, just like the 31 who appear free. For an hour, the microphone circulates from one end of the courtroom to the other, even if most prefer to speak on the stand.
Some say a little more. Jacques C., 73 years old, thanks the defense lawyers, “who have demonstrated unusual courage in the exercise of their profession”. “This affair has made me sick for life”cowardly Husamettin D., 43 years old. Adrien L. says he has “a thought for the families who are devastated by these facts”. “I never intended to rape,” reaffirm Didier S., Mahdi D. and Cendric V. In the same vein, Ahmed T. insists that he was “manipulated”.
One last time, Gisèle Pelicot listens, more or less distracted, sitting in the space reserved for civil parties, accompanied by her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau. Around ten accused apologized to him. But the septuagenarian ostensibly looks elsewhere, leans into her phone, exchanges a few words with the lawyer from France Victimes, who has been with her since September 2.
Until Redouane E. arrives, feverish, at the bar, with several sheets of notes. This liberal, voluble nurse distinguished himself during his interrogation by evoking a frame-up by the Pelicot couple, demanding that the victim's phone be searched by the police. His remarks on Monday are similar. “When [Gisèle Pelicot] speak, I don't feel any emotion, not a tear”, he laments. The 55-year-old man denounces “a dictatorship of the image as a master means of manipulation”. He regrets that the videos broadcast at the trial create “a confusion and an amalgam”in order to “to stun people so that they don’t think.” His lawyer tries to contain him. Impossible. The president succeeds, with difficulty, after about fifteen minutes.
Gisèle Pelicot seems devastated. This man's very theatrical denials caused her to burst into nervous laughter at the beginning of October. The one who celebrated her 72nd birthday on December 7 seems to expect nothing from the men who parade at the bar. Two, however, catch his attention. Jérôme V. and Cédric G. are among the rare accused with a criminological profile judged “dangerous”. Sixteen years of imprisonment were required against them. The first is one of the four pursued men who came to Mazan six times. The second made his ex-partners go through hell by posting intimate photos of them on the web, against their will.
“I wanted to make it clear that, whatever the sentence, I will not appeal, to respect the victim,” warns Jérôme V., arousing the surprise of his lawyer, a few meters from him. “I'm not necessarily in a hurry to take this double-digit sentence, but I need to know where I'm going, to know how many years I'm going for,” continues the 46-year-old man, resigned. In a calm voice, he speaks glued to the window of the box he shares with Dominique Pelicot. Facing Gisèle Pelicot, on the other side of the room, he explains that he does not want to apologize to her, because they “would not be heard”.
The words of Cédric G., a few minutes after him, resonate. “Madam, I have expressed to you my remorse, my guilt, my shame. My excuses are no longer conceivable”he states. Like his predecessor, he is part of the minority of accused who fully admit the facts. The 50-year-old man talks about a “dizzying construction site” started with his psychologist in detention. And apologizes to his lawyer before reaffirming, as he did during his interrogation, that he had indeed subjected “a rape” to the victim. After more than three months of hearing, the word is still very rare among the accused. The verdict is expected Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
