The day of truth has arrived for the trial on the terrible violence suffered by Gisèle Pelicot, who between 2011 and 2020 was sedated without her knowledge by her ex-husband Dominique, who forced her to suffer sexual violence from dozens of strangers contacted on the Internet.
The case, which has profoundly shaken French and international public opinion, reaches an epilogue today, 19 December, with the sentence that was issued this morning at the Court of Avignon and which saw the ex-husband sentenced to the maximum sentence . This trial was defined by the French media as a “historic verdict”, destined to mark a new page in the fight against violence against women.
The unsuspected
There are 51 defendants in the dock, including the main perpetrator, Dominique Pelicot, nicknamed “the ogre of Mazan” – from the name of the town where the horrors took place.
For him, the prosecution requested and obtained 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence. The other 50 men accused of taking part in the violence were charged with sentences ranging from 4 to 18 years.
The accused include people from all walks of life: men ranging from pensioners to soldiers, from journalists to truck drivers and even nurses. Gisèle, the victim, decided to make the hearings public to raise public awareness, taking on the role of a feminist symbol. Her presence in court aroused the solidarity of many women who attended the hearings, supporting her battle. The Pelicot case has also highlighted a problem that has not been addressed so far: that of “chemical submission”, caused by the use of drugs and medicines, which is used to commit sexual violence. A concept which, thanks to this process, is destined to evolve in the international legal panorama.
Last updated: Thursday 19 December 2024, 10:34
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