After four months of debate, the Mazan rape trial concluded Thursday with the maximum sentence for Dominique Pelicot, but lower sentences than those requested by the prosecution for his 50 co-defendants, a decision that Gisèle Pelicot affirmed ” respect”.
In a brief intervention after the verdict of the Vaucluse criminal court, the ex-wife of Dominique Pelicot, 72 years old, a true feminist icon since her decision to refuse the closed session at the opening of this extraordinary trial, on September 2 , in Avignon, also said he was thinking of “the unrecognized victims” of sexual violence.
Optimistic, she assured that she had “confidence now” in “a future in which everyone, woman and man, can live in harmony”.
Unsurprisingly, her now ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, also 72 years old, was sentenced to the maximum possible sentence for aggravated rape, i.e. 20 years of criminal imprisonment, as requested by the prosecution. The court even went further by adding a two-thirds security sentence.
He was on trial for having doused his wife with anxiolytics for a decade, making her his sexual object and delivering her to dozens of men recruited on the internet.
– “Disappointed” children –
His 50 co-defendants, men aged 27 to 74, were all also found guilty, most of them for “aggravated rape”. Then, in a dry reading, without any comment or motivation, President Roger Arata then listed their sentences one by one, during a final hearing which lasted barely more than an hour.
The lowest sentence, three years in prison, two of which were suspended, was given to Joseph C., 69, accused of “touching” Gisèle Pelicot. The heaviest, 15 years of criminal imprisonment, targeted Romain V., 63, who came to Mazan six times to rape Ms. Pelicot.
The public prosecutor had requested sentences of 10 to 18 years’ imprisonment against the 49 co-defendants tried for aggravated rape or attempted rape, hoping that the court in its final verdict would send “a message of hope to victims of sexual violence”.
A verdict deemed too lenient by the Pelicot couple’s children, David, Caroline and Florian, “disappointed” with these “low” sentences, a member of the family, who requested anonymity, told AFP.
With the conviction of the 51 accused, “justice has vindicated Gisèle Pelicot”, welcomed the Women’s Foundation, however sharing “the incomprehension and disappointment in the face of some of the sentences handed down, despite the witnesses and the evidence”, these thousands of photos and videos of the rapes of Gisèle Pelicot that her husband had carefully stored and captioned.
“The message sent is ‘rape, it’s not that serious, it’s a sub-crime'”, the Dare to Feminism association was also indignant.
In the crowd gathered in front of the court, anger was also strong, with cries of “let’s stop demanding justice, let’s do justice”, from certain activists. A sign of this tension, one of the six accused who walked away free was jostled as he walked away with his lawyer.
– Dominique Pelicot “dazed” –
According to his lawyer, Me Béatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot was “somewhat dazed” by the security period pronounced against him, not excluding an appeal in order to be retried, this time before “a popular jury”, as is the rule after a first instance before a criminal court, composed of professional magistrates.
The public prosecutor will make a decision in the coming days: “We will judge on a case-by-case basis regarding a possible appeal, when we have received the motivations,” one of its two representatives, Jean-Pierre, told AFP. François Mayet.
Among the defense lawyers, around thirty of whom had pleaded for the acquittal of their clients, who were allegedly “manipulated” by the “monster”, the “wolf” or even the “ogre” Dominique Pelicot, few seemed inclined to do so. call. “Even if he finds it a little harsh, my client understood the meaning of the sentence and recognized the facts,” declared Me Cécile Attard, who defends Fabien S., sentenced to 11 years in prison (the prosecution asked for 16 years ).
Jérôme V., sentenced to 13 years, had said even before the verdict that he would not appeal, so as not to impose a new trial on Ms. Pelicot.
Found guilty, the majority of the 32 accused who appeared free will sleep Thursday evening behind bars. Ready for this eventuality, most arrived at the hearing with a bag containing some clothes. In tears, one of them hugged his partner for a long time before entering the room.
One thing is certain: the court’s decision was closely scrutinized, in France and abroad, as this trial caused a shock wave, becoming emblematic of issues surrounding gender-based and sexual violence and, more broadly, gender relations.
Gisèle Pelicot’s fight “obliges us all and must be continued”, commented Prime Minister François Bayrou. “Thank you Gisèle”, reacted on X the heads of the Spanish and German governments Pedro Sanchez and Olaf Scholz.
Closing this last chapter of an extraordinary trial, Gisèle Pelicot left the courthouse to “bravo” and “thank you”, echoing a huge banner “Thank you Gisèle” hung on the ramparts of the city of Avignon, in front of the court.
As for Dominique Pelicot, appeal or not to this Mazan rape trial, he is not done with justice. Indicted by the +cold cases+ pole, he could be tried for an attempted rape in 1999 in Seine-et-Marne, but above all a rape followed by murder in 1991 in Paris, that of a young 23-year-old real estate agent. .
