It took him a few seconds of silence, barely enough time for a deep breath, to get started. The stifling wall of cameras could only remind him, his words were about to resonate, once again, in the four corners of the world. With misty eyes, a slightly trembling voice, but with her head held high, Gisèle Pelicot shared, Thursday at midday, her “deep emotion” after the verdict was announced concluding the Mazan rape trial. Despite sentences generally lower than the requisitions, she soberly declared, in front of the courtroom of the Avignon courthouse: “I respect the court and the decision of the verdict.”
Coming out of the reserve she had imposed on herself throughout the trial (she had only made short statements to the press), Gisèle Pelicot recalled the obvious, the one that some had quickly forgotten, camouflaged by her infallible determination: “This trial was a very difficult ordeal.” For weeks, she heard her 51 attackers, including her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, accepted their insolent, sometimes absurd denials, received their apologies, more or less sincere. For almost a decade, the septuagenarian was sedated by her ex-husband, who took advantage of her state of unconsciousness to rape her and have her raped by these strangers, recruited online. These men, whom she discovered at the hearing, were all found guilty by the Vaucluse departmental criminal court, mainly for “aggravated rape”.
Thought for the “victims whose stories remain in the shadows”
His rare decision to close the closed session transformed this legal moment into a historic trial. Now no one can take their eyes off “the banality of rape”, which she denounced during her last statement at the bar. “By opening the doors of this trial on September 2, I wanted society to be able to take in the debates that took place there. I have never regretted this decision.” she reaffirms this Thursday, with a thought for “all the families affected by this tragedy”.
Surrounded by her children, her grandson’s hand placed tenderly on her shoulder, Gisèle Pelicot carried her voice alone. Until the end, she will remain the face of her own fight. His lawyers did not comment. But they escorted him, as usual, with kindness. Under the lenses, the trio stood, one last time in this sequence of almost four months, as a united front. Gisèle Pelicot expressed to them all “his recognition”.
“Your testimonies shocked me”
Echoing the public who have been chanting her name for hours in front of the courthouse, Gisèle Pelicot expressed her “deepest gratitude to all the people who [l]’have supported throughout this ordeal’. His ritual guard of honor had today moved to the street where the public was relegated for lack of seats. “Your testimony moved me and I drew from it the strength to come back every day to face these long days of hearing.”
Gisèle Pelicot is fully aware that this conviction, supported by a significant quantity of material evidence, is still an exception in France. According to a note from the Public Policy Institute, 86% of complaints of sexual violence are dismissed. “I think of these unrecognized victims whose stories often remain in the shadows,” she said, in a soft voice. And projects itself onto the post-trial, this abyss where silence reigns. “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. Thank you.»
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