Only around fifteen defendants, including Dominique Pelicot, out of the 51 men prosecuted in the Mazan rape trial, took the opportunity on Monday, during their last speech, to apologize to the main victim, Gisèle, before the verdict expected on Thursday.
“I would like to start by saluting the courage of my ex-wife,” declared first the “conductor” of this decade of rapes against his ex-wife, tried for having drugged her with anxiolytics for 10 years for the rape and deliver her to dozens of men he recruited on the internet.
“I ask her, and the rest of my family, to kindly accept my apologies,” continued Dominique Pelicot, 72 years old: “I regret what I did, causing suffering for four years (Editor’s note: date of the revelation facts, in 2020), I ask them for forgiveness”.
In front of him, alone on the civil parties' bench, Gisèle Pelicot remained stoic.
Sitting but leaning on a cane from the box where he has been appearing since September 2, he reaffirmed having told “the total truth” during the 14 weeks of debates, regretting that sometimes his attitude “could be interpreted as casualness “.
Today, “I rather intend to make myself forgotten”, he said, referring to his “inner shame”. “I have a shell that I created for myself, otherwise we die in prison,” continued the man described by several lawyers of the co-defendants as “the ogre of Mazan”, a “wolf” who would have trapped their clients by making them believe to the scenario of a libertine couple where the wife pretends to be sleeping.
“I can tell all my family that I love them. There you have the rest of my life in your hands,” he concluded towards the five professional magistrates of the court. On November 25, the prosecution requested the maximum sentence against him, 20 years of criminal imprisonment.
Against 49 of his co-defendants, also prosecuted for aggravated rape, the prosecution had requested 10 to 18 years of imprisonment, four years of prison being requested against the last, prosecuted for “touching” Gisèle Pelicot.
– “I will regret it all my life” –
After Mr. Pelicot, the other accused paraded to the microphone, in the detainees' box or to the stand for those appearing free, for a final speech. Half were limited to a simple “nothing to add”.
Around fifteen of the 50 men present – one is on the run and tried in absentia – expressed their apologies to the victim, while sometimes adding that they “did not have the intention” to commit rape or that they had been same “victim of manipulation” on the part of Dominique Pelicot.
“Sorry ma’am” (Didier S., 68 years old), “I would like to apologize again to Ms. Pelicot” (Patrick A., 60 years old), “I would like to reiterate my sincere apologies to the victim” (Mahdi D., 36 years old), some have expressed this way.
“I will regret my actions all my life” (Mathieu D., 62 years old), “I am accused of not being empathetic, of being a monster” (Redouan E., 55 years old): others have tried to explain their actions to Gisèle Pelicot.
Some went further by addressing Gisèle Pelicot directly, like Cédric G., 51 years old: “it is indeed your body that I subjected this rape to”.
Or Jérôme V., 46 years old, who came six times to the Pelicot marital home, in Mazan (Vaucluse), who warned that “whatever the sentence” that will be imposed on him, he will not appeal, “out of respect for the victim, so that she does not have to relive a new trial. Against him, the prosecution requested 16 years of criminal imprisonment.
– Verdict Thursday –
Almost half of the accused added nothing to their defense or tersely thanked the court or their lawyers.
On the civil parties' bench, Gisèle Pelicot was alone on Monday. None of his three children had made the trip to hear their father's last words. And as is now a habit, she received a standing ovation from the public as she left the courtroom.
With this final speech by the 51 accused, which only lasted a little over an hour, three and a half months of debate in an extraordinary trial ended Monday morning, pending the verdict scheduled for Thursday. morning at 9:30 a.m.
A “theoretical” date which could be pushed back to Thursday afternoon or Friday, added the magistrate.
As for the risk of flight of the 32 accused appearing free, all of whom risk prison sentences, in view of the prosecution's requisitions, he confirmed that they would remain free “until the deliberations are pronounced”.
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