Photo: Christophe Simon Agence France-Presse Gisele Pelicot was applauded on Wednesday upon her arrival at the Avignon court.
Philippe Siuberski – Agence France-Presse and David Courbet – Agence France-Presse in Avignon
Published at 8:47
- Europe
After calling for prison sentences of four to 20 years for the 51 defendants in France's high-profile serial rape trial, the prosecution “looked to the future” on Wednesday, hoping that the verdict expected in December will be “a message of hope to victims of sexual violence.”
“With your verdict, you will mean that ordinary rape does not exist, that accidental or involuntary rape does not exist. “You will deliver a message of hope to victims of sexual violence,” insisted Laure Chabaud, one of the two representatives of the public prosecutor's office, addressing the criminal court of Vaucluse.
“You will give back a part of her humanity stolen from Gisèle Pelicot,” she added, facing the septuagenarian, who has become an icon of the feminist cause since her decision to refuse to be heard in camera on the first day of this extraordinary trial, on September 2, in Avignon.
For ten years, from July 2011 to October 2020, she had been drugged without her knowledge by her now ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, who raped her and delivered her to dozens of men recruited on the Internet.
“By your verdict, you will signify to the women of this country that there is no inevitability to suffer, and to the men of this country no inevitability to act. You will guide us in the education of our sons, because it is through education that change will be driven,” she added.
“No magic formula”
Her speech concluded three days of requisitions conducted at a fast pace against Dominique Pelicot’s 50 co-defendants, against whom the prosecution requested between 4 and 18 years of criminal imprisonment. For Dominique Pelicot, who turned 72 this Wednesday, the maximum sentence of 20 years of imprisonment had been requested on Monday.
“There will be a before and after” the Mazan rape trial, the magistrate hoped in any case, a formula that she had written, she specified, “before” it was used on Monday by Prime Minister Michel Barnier.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000Ms. Chabaud also hoped that the sentences that will be handed down at the verdict, expected no later than December 20, will lead the accused to “a real and profound awareness” of their actions, “in particular on the notion of consent.”
The magistrate, however, regretted that during these 12 weeks of debates there had “sometimes emerged from this room a disturbing communion between the accused, leading to an inappropriate relaxation.”
She also castigated the “magic formula” of several defendants, who repeated that they “had no intention” of raping Gisèle Pelicot, “to make their responsibility disappear”: “Know, gentlemen, that magic formulas do not work in the courts,” she asserted.
The attorney general finally hoped that “the scale of the fight that must be waged” would lead to “a collective, societal awareness”: “This trial is a building block that others after us will continue to build. This trial is a step on the long and winding path to reconstruction,” she concluded.
On the civil parties’ side, Gisèle Pelicot refrained from taking any position after this indictment: “It is important that the judicial process be respected and Ms. Pelicot is particularly keen on this, which is why she will not make any comments on the sentences, any comments, any opinions on these requisitions,” reacted one of her two lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau, as she left the hearing.
Before handing over to the defense lawyers, who will speak from 2 p.m. — with the opening argument of Béatrice Zavarro for Dominique Pelicot — the other attorney general, Jean-François Mayet, had completed the requisitions against the accused, which had been growing in intensity since Monday.
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“Justice, not vengeance”
In less than an hour, he first requested 16 years of imprisonment against Jérôme V., 46 years old (who came to Mazan six times), 17 years against Dominique D., 45 years old (who also came six times), and 17 years against Mohamed R., a 70-year-old retiree already convicted of aggravated rape.
“Seventeen years of criminal imprisonment, we are only three years away from Dominique Pelicot, when in reality, he is only concerned for a few minutes in Dominique Pelicot's life. “It's a total disproportion,” protested Mohamed R.'s lawyer, according to whom “justice is not revenge.”
Finally, an 18-year sentence was requested against Romain V., a retiree who had also come to Mazan six times. Rejecting all responsibility on Dominique Pelicot, he explained that he was looking for a “social connection”.
These requests, significantly harsher than the general average for rape sentences in France, which was 11.1 years in 2022, had already been described on Monday as “staggering” and “out of proportion” by other defense lawyers, who criticized the prosecution for having requested under the influence of “public opinion”.