Returning to the Vaucluse criminal court on Friday, after a day of hospitalization, Dominique Pelicot, the main accused in the Mazan rape trial, was accused by two of his 50 co-defendants of having also drugged them.
For Nizar H., 40 years old, and Christian L., 56 years old, it is clear that they were not in their normal state at the home of the Pelicot couple, where they are accused of having raped Gisèle Pelicot, unconscious, knocked out of anxiolytics by her now ex-husband. “I got trapped”, insisted Nizar H., assuring that that night of October 9 to 10, 2020 when he was filmed by Dominique Pelicot raping his wife, he was not himself: “on the videos, I’m a robot”, he declared, convinced that he had been drugged by the husband when he served him a glass of water.
As proof, according to him, this accident he had on the way back from that evening, where he broke the bumper of his car, and of which he had no memory.
“I went there for a libertine couple”where the woman would pretend to sleep, he maintained, “never in his life did he say to me, ‘Come and rape my wife’”he insisted, angrily.
For Christian L., alias “Chris the fireman” on the site coco.fr where he had been invited by Mr. Pelicot, like the 49 other co-defendants in this extraordinary trial, the defense is the same: he must have been drugged, no doubt when Mr. Pelicot served him coffee, coffee of which he however has no memory. “That day (Editor’s note: Christian L. is one of the few to come to the Pelicots during the day, January 15, 2019) it was a total blackout until I got my Twingo back,” he assured the court.
And if he confessed to the rapes in police custody, it was because he wanted “All this stops as quickly as possible“: “I was ready to tell them whatever they wanted, and why not that Kennedy was me.”
Imperturbable, Dominique Pelicot repeated what he had been saying since the start of this trial, which began on September 2: everyone knew that his wife was previously drugged by him, everyone knew that they were coming to rape her.
Only three of the last seven accused were able to be questioned on the facts on Friday, the hearings of Nicolas F., 43 years old, Boris M., 37 years old, Philippe L., 62 years old, and Joseph C., 69 years old, will take place on Monday , announced the president of the court Roger Arata, closing the debates.
This should postpone until Tuesday the hearing of the two sons of the Pelicot couple, David and Florian, the only two members of the family not yet to have been heard by the court, in Avignon.
Verdict on December 20?
Once the floor is given one last time to Dominique Pelicot, the main accused, and possibly to his ex-wife Gisèle, this trial will then enter a new phase, at the earliest on Wednesday: that of the pleadings. The floor will first be given to the lawyers of the civil parties, then to the two representatives of the public prosecutor, and then to the lawyers of the 51 accused.
After giving the defendants the floor one last time, the court will then retire to deliberate, with a verdict expected on December 20 at the latest.
rapes of Mazan trial of the rapes of Mazan Dominique Pelicot Gisèle Pelicot
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