Gisèle Pelicot depicts the “trial of cowardice” for her last speech

JUSTICE – A particularly anticipated 48th day of hearing. In Avignon, it was a day full of emotion that awaited the Vaucluse criminal court, responsible for hearing Gisèle Pelicot for the very last time in this trial.

This Tuesday, November 19, the main victim of the Mazan rapes took the stand for a final testimony, after all the accused appeared before the court. And it was in a packed courtroom that the septuagenarian spoke of the trial in less than complimentary terms. « For me, it's the trial of cowardice. The trial of Gisèle Pelicot is the trial of cowardice (…) It is high time that the macho, patriarchal society, which trivializes rape, changes. It's time we change the way we look at rape.”said the septuagenarian, who made this fight her own.

She then addressed the accused directly: “ At what point, when you entered this room, did Ms. Pelicot give you her consent? At what point, when you see the inert body, do you not tell yourself that something unusual is happening without this room? ? ».

“I heard: 'I was remote controlled, I was drugged, I took a Zolpidem'. We say to ourselves: but when did they not hit? Why didn't they go and denounce all this? »she also questioned on the stand.

Arms exchange with the defense

And after eleven weeks of a more than trying trial, she finally admitted that “ fatigue is felt.” “Since the start of this trial, I have heard a lot of inaudible, unacceptable things, but that's how this trial was supposed to happen: I knew what I was going to be exposed to by refusing to go behind closed doors. “, she continued, explaining that she still “ a lot of trouble » to hear « that it is practically a banality to have raped Madame Pelicot ».

Gisèle Pelicot's speech then turned into a skirmish between the defense and the civil party, when several defense lawyers, including Me Nadia El Bouroumi, questioned the septuagenarian with a certain form of aggressiveness. Particularly when the civil party was accused of being more docile with Dominique Pelicot than with the rest of the accused. Even accusing Gisèle Pelicot of being absent when her ex-husband is too.

“After what he did to you, you don’t have a single bad word?” »the lawyer told him in particular. “ Were you there when I filed? I spoke to Mr. Pelicot. I told him I had been betrayed.”replied Gisèle Pelicot, visibly surprised by the question. Before reminding the lawyer that at the start of the trial, “ I wasn't that much of a victim (in your eyes), you even said that I was an accomplice ».

A climate of tension which should logically come down before the resumption of the debates on Wednesday, where the civil party will be able to “ begin the pleadings of the civil party », as indicated by the president of the court Roger Arata before hearing Gisèle Pelicot for the last time.

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