AgenPress. French President Emmanuel Macron today thanked Gisele Pelicot for her “courage”, saying she had “paved the way” for other women, after her ex-husband was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drugging and raping her for almost a decade inviting strangers to rape her.
“Thank you, Giselle Pelico. For the justice in the name of which you have faced this test with your head held high,” Macron wrote on X.
“Your dignity and your courage have moved and inspired France and the world”, underlined the president, thanking Giselle Pelicot and “for women, who will always have someone who will open the way for them to speak and fight”.
French politicians have hailed the “courage” of Gisele Pélicot after the Avignon court announced its decision to end the trial in a case that had sparked shock and disgust both in France and internationally.
Giselle Pelico, 72, is a symbol of female courage and a figure of feminism, having refused to have the trial held behind closed doors, as rape victims have the right to request it. His goal, as he stated, “is to change the field of shame.”
Apart from her ex-husband, Dominik Peliko, 72, the court found all 50 co-defendants guilty of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault, sentencing them to sentences ranging from three years to 15 years in prison.
