RETRO 9/12. Opening of the Mazan rape trial, Depakine scandal… these events that marked the region September 2024

These events marked September 2024. MIDI LIBRE/MAXPPP

At the start of 2025, Midi Libre invites you to rediscover the events that marked the region in 2024. Today, we look back at the month of September.

OPENING OF THE EXTRAORDINARY TRIAL OF THE CHEMICAL RAPES UNDER SUBMISSION IN MAZAN

With her courage, Gisèle Pelicot has left her mark on the year 2024. MIDI LIBRE

In 2020, a complaint for invasion of privacy was filed against a sixty-year-old in Carpentras. This man is Dominique Pelicot. He was caught filming under a customer's skirt in a supermarket. The police then seized his computer and discovered that the septuagenarian was hiding videos of his wife, Gisèle, on it. She appeared naked, unconscious, and raped by dozens of men in her house in Mazan.

Of the 80 people identified, only 50 were identified in addition to her husband. Four years later, the Mazan rape trial began on September 2, 2024 before the Vaucluse criminal court. Three months of hearings, expert reports, and analyses, during which the 51 accused attempted to defend themselves. In light of the hyper-mediatization of the case, the requisitions were intended to be exemplary. The attorney general requested 4 to 20 years in prison. The defense, for its part, played on two notions: consent and “'intention” of rape. It was difficult for the thousands of supporters of Gisèle Pelicot, who was made a feminist icon for having requested the lifting of the closed-door hearing, to hear this speech. One thing is certain, there was a before and after the Mazan trial.

WEST NILE VIRUS: AN EPIDEMIC CAUSED BY MOSQUITOES RAVAGES HORSE FARMS

200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000

Mosquitoes have ravaged the region's horse farms. MAXPPP

In early September 2024, the first cases of infection with the virus transmitted by Oulex mosquitoes were detected in Camargue and Hérault. The insects catch the virus by biting the scissors, then transmit it by feeding on other mammals. Horses were the first to be affected, but several humans were contaminated, although the infection is mostly asymptomatic for them. As the pathogen can cause serious neurological complications, owners are then advised to be extremely vigilant.

The residual heat of Tété maintaining the proliferation of mosquitoes, very quickly the players in the sector complained that no eradication work was being carried out. The ARS and Public Health France have set up a vigilance campaign to protect themselves from mosquitoes until temperatures drop. Several horses died during this fleeting epidemic, which lasted only a month.

DEPAKINE SCANDAL: CATALAN MARINE MARTIN FINALLY WINS AGAINST SANOFI

Marine Martin has raised the alarm. DR

Whistleblower Marine Martin won against the pharmaceutical manager on September 9, 2024, twelve years after filing a complaint. Mother of two children with long-unexplained disabilities, the Catalan has been fighting for years against Sanofi, which marketed Depakine.

This medication for epileptic disorders was long given to pregnant women, including Marine, which caused irreversible disorders for her sons. With the association she created, Apesac, she fights for compensation for thousands of families affected by this health scandal. She points out in particular the lack of transparency on this side effect. The criminal court ruled in her favor, considering that there had indeed been a “lack of information”.

Sanofi was ordered to pay 285,000 euros to the mother. This judgment, which will set a precedent for those who follow, is a victory for the whistleblower.

# Find our entire retrospective in an immersive format, suitable for reading on computers and smartphones.