Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers will request on Monday that the closed-door hearing be lifted during the broadcast of videos implicating defendants in the Mazan rape trial, they announced on Wednesday, an issue that deeply divides the parties.
“I will file conclusions on Monday” to this effect, declared one of Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau.
Dominique Pelicot admitted to having drugged his wife Gisèle for ten years in order to rape her and deliver her to dozens of men, around fifty of whom have been on trial in Avignon since September 2.
Last Friday, after the broadcast of two series of photos and videos in the presence of journalists, Attorney General Jean-François Mayet requested that all of the images “be viewed by the court”, receiving the support of the civil parties and Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer.
The lawyers of the other accused, however, fiercely opposed it, with one of them asking whether “in order to be served properly, justice needs [ce] nauseating unpacking».
The president of the criminal court, Roger Arata, then decided that the broadcasts would be done on a case-by-case basis and that, “considering that these images are indecent and shocking”, this would take place in the absence of the public or the press.
“This is a trial that has the power to change society. But for this society to change, we must have the courage to confront what rape really is,” lamented M.e Baboon.
On Wednesday, Mr. Arata indicated that it would take “at least two hours” for the parties to be able to express their views on the conclusions of Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers, suggesting that the debates would once again be tense in a highly publicized trial.
The president of the court did not specify when this debate would take place, indicating only that the lawyers, who are no longer all present in Avignon, would be notified sufficiently in advance.
He also confirmed that videos would be released this Thursday, most likely without the press present.
In a press release published on Wednesday evening, the Association of the Judicial Press (APJ) denounced “the abusive and contemptuous methods” of Mr. Arata, who “circumvents the code of criminal procedure by invoking his power to police the hearing to exclude the press when images of the rapes are broadcast, even though the civil party, the only party authorized to request a closed hearing, does not want it.”
