Béatrice Zavarro knows that this trial will undoubtedly be the most significant of her career. “However, I have thirty years at the bar behind me,” confides the lawyer who took the oath in 1996 in Marseille. The trial of a lifetime? “At the start, I did not imagine the scale that this affair would take,” confides Me Zavarro, one of the main protagonists of this trial which provoked a national debate on violence against women. “A debate that I find beneficial”, she said.
Before the Avignon criminal court, Mr. Zavarro does not have an easy time. She is there to defend Dominique Pelicot, who, for ten years, sedated his wife to rape her and have her raped by dozens of men. The facts are dizzying. “Foul, reconnais Me Zavarro. But I am not defending what Dominique Pelicot did. I defend a man above all. A man who takes responsibility for what he did. And it is the honor of lawyers to defend everyone. In the past, I defended the person responsible for infanticide, a man who killed his mistress with 40 stab wounds and perpetrators of sexual violence. I would stop being a lawyer if I had to give up defending Dominique Pelicot just because I'm a woman. »
A pact of trust
It was in March 2021 that Dominique Pelicot, then incarcerated in Baumettes, contacted Me Zavarro. “One day, in the playground, another inmate told me that he was defended by this lawyer and that he was happy with her services,” the accused told the hearing last week. During this first meeting, Mr. Zavarro laid his cards on the table: “I told Mr. Pelicot that, to defend him, I had to form a pact of trust with him: he had to tell me everything about the facts. And I think that's what he did. »
Dominique Pelicot then confesses to him that he had his wife raped by strangers. But at this stage of the investigation, only around ten men have been identified. “At that moment, I had no idea that we would end up with a trial with 50 defendants,” she said, ensuring that at no time did she think of giving up assisting this extraordinary sex criminal. Even when his office in Marseille began to receive malicious messages.
“You’re going to do it.”
The only time she “flanked” ? After the first week of the trial. “There, I had a little doubt. The tension was high. It was my husband and my son who told me: “There’s no question of giving up, you’re going to do it”.” says the lawyer who, since the trial opened at the beginning of September, has been accompanied by her husband who follows the debates in the public. “My family is very important. It's with her that I recharge my batteries on the weekends when I return to Marseille. »
Me Zavarro is not one of those loud-mouthed criminal lawyers who, through their gestures or their loud voice, try to establish a balance of power at the hearing. The lawyer is small (1.45 m), she speaks gently, always in a calm tone. Which does not prevent him from imposing himself in the courtroom, without ever attracting the wrath of the civil parties. Unlike some defense lawyers, Me Zavarro never attacked Gisèle Pelicot. “She is a courageous woman, who has a lot of elegance and has made very measured remarks since the start of the trial. I have a lot of respect for her. »
Monday, November 25, the prosecution requested the maximum sentence against Dominique Pelicot, twenty years of criminal imprisonment. It was expected, no one was surprised. “He is shot. It is never very easy for a man to hear that a sentence of twenty years is required against him,” said at the end of the hearing Me Zavarro, who will be the first to plead in the ranks of the defense on Wednesday. Then, she will no longer speak until the end of the trial at the end of December. “All the energy deployed for three months will then fall back, she said. I'm preparing for it. This is also the life of a lawyer. »
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