After more than three months of hearings and three days of deliberation, the professional magistrates making up the Vaucluse criminal court delivered their verdict this Thursday morning in Avignon in the Pelicot trial. None of the 51 accused was acquitted, all were found guilty, the vast majority of them for aggravated rape. They were sentenced to 3 years, including one year, and 20 years in prison. Dominique Pelicot is sentenced to the maximum sentence, 20 years, with a two-thirds security period, for having sedated his wife for 10 years with the aim of raping her and having her raped by strangers recruited on the Internet.
Leaving the courthouse, Gisèle Pelicot said she was “very moved”. “This trial was a very difficult ordeal. I think first of all of my three children, David, Caroline and Florian, I also think of my grandchildren because they are the future and it is also for them that I I led this fight, as well as my daughters-in-law Aurore and Céline. The septuagenarian also had a thought for “the unrecognized victims” and thanked the public who came to support her during her long weeks, ensuring that she, partly thanks to them, found “the strength to come back every day to face these long days of audience”. “I respect the court and the verdict,” she added, while some of the condemned emerged free, with sentences lower than the requisitions. Which angered many of his supporters.
Those convicted now have 10 days to appeal their conviction. Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, who granted us an interview in recent days, indicated that her client does not rule out an appeal in order to be retried by “a popular jury in the coming months”. “I have to go see him very soon at the penitentiary establishment to make this decision which is loaded with meaning and which prejudges his certain future” she declared.
This day marks the end of a trial that will go down in history and the woman whose face we did not know until a few weeks ago has become an icon. By refusing the closed session with the stated desire that “shame changes sides”, Gisèle Pelicot has aroused admiration throughout the world. “I wanted, by opening the doors of this trial on September 2, that society could take up the debates that took place there. I have never regretted this decision. I now have confidence in our ability to collectively seize a future in which everyone, women and men, can live in harmony with respect and mutual understanding,” she said this Thursday.
This long and painful trial, followed by the media around the world, revealed to the general public a more widespread modus operandi than it seems: chemical submission and has already led to numerous debates on “rape culture”. , the question of consent as well as the definition of rape in the penal code. Several legislative proposals have been tabled to introduce the notion of consent into French law.
So what lessons can we learn from this affair? Why have the hearings held since September 2 already made history? The attitude and words used by certain lawyers during this trial raised questions and even shocked them. Does a lawyer have the right to say everything? What is the definition of rape in the penal code? Should the law be changed?
The experts:
– Me Laure HEINICH – Criminal lawyer at the Paris bar and writer, author of “Justice against Men“.
– Caroline VIGOUREUX – Journalist – The Tribune
– Audrey GOUTARD – Senior reporter – specialist in social issues at France Télévisions
– Serge HEFEZ – Psychiatrist and family psychotherapist
– Noémie SCHULZ (duplex from Avignon) – Senior reporter in charge of police justice issues at France Télévisions
