A lawyer for the accused caused a scandal by insulting demonstrators after the verdict in the Mazan rape case.
The Mazan rape trial concluded Thursday morning with the sentencing of 50 men to sentences ranging from three years in prison, two of which were suspended, up to 15 years in prison. These sentences, much lower than those requested by the public prosecutor, have already provoked numerous reactions.
The main accused, Dominique Pelicot, was sentenced to 20 years of criminal imprisonment, with a two-thirds security period, in accordance with the requisitions. His lawyer, however, indicated that an appeal was being considered, affirming that his client wanted to be retried by a popular jury, instead of a court composed solely of professional magistrates.
A scandalous intervention by a lawyer
While support for the victim gathered in front of the Avignon court, one of the defendants’ lawyers distinguished himself by unacceptable behavior. A video, relayed by our colleagues from RMC, shows the lawyer addressing the group with an alleged “message from his client“. He then engaged in a series of insults, calling the women present “hysterical”““bad mouth” and even “knitters.
These comments immediately caused strong indignation and tensions among the demonstrators.
This trial shed light on the horror of the acts committed by Dominique Pelicot, who, for a decade, drugged his ex-wife Gisèle Pelicot with anxiolytics to make her his sexual object, delivering her to dozens of men recruited on the Internet. Despite requisitions totaling 652 years of prison for the 51 accused, the sentences handed down ultimately totaled 428 years of incarceration.
Greasy Pelicot
Belgium
