Avignon, France, Dec 19 (EFE).- The trial for the rape and assault of Gisèle Pelicot concluded on Thursday in Avignon with a 20-year sentence for the main defendant, her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot, and sentences generally lower than those requested by the prosecution for his 50 co-defendants, all of whom were found guilty.
Gisele Pelicot (C), with her lawyers Stephane Babonneau and Antoine Camus, speaks to the media at the criminal court in Avignon, southern France, 19 December 2024. EFE-EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
Dominique Pelicot, 72, must serve at least two thirds of his sentence behind bars, but will then have the opportunity to be released on parole.
Lawyer Beatrice Zavarro, representing main defendant Dominique Pelicot, speaks to the media at the criminal court in Avignon, southern France, 19 December 2024. EFE-EPA/GUILLAUME HORCAJUELO
The remaining 50 accused were handed sentences of between three to 15 years in jail.
The 51 defendants have been sentenced to a total of just over 400 years, a figure significantly lower than the 652 years that the prosecution had requested.
A 63-year-old man, who went to the then-couple’s home in the small town of Mazan, near Avignon, six times to rape the victim, was sentenced to 15 years, three years less than the prosecution had requested.
Another of the main defendants in the mass rape trial, Jean-Pierre Maréchal, a man accused of copying Dominique Pelicot’s tactics with his own wife, was sentenced to 12 years instead of the 17 requested by the prosecutors.
In addition, six of the defendants will be released, either because they are exempt from serving their sentences in prison or because they have already served part of them in pre-trial detention.
These lighter-than-requested sentences, together with the fact that several of the convicted men will not have to go to prison, immediately sparked the displeasure of the hundreds of people who had gathered to follow the trial and support Gisèle Pelicot.
“Shame on the justice system,” shouted many of those present, most of them women.
Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, did not rule out appealing the decision.
All the convicted have a period of ten days to decide whether to appeal the sentence.
Gisele Pelicot, 72, was raped for a decade by dozens of men whom her husband, who drugged her with high doses of sedatives, invited to abuse her while she was unconscious.
The participants were men between the ages of 27 and 74, from all social classes and professions, including firefighters, truck drivers, journalists, nurses, military personnel and also retirees.
Her ex-husband’s plot, which she was completely unaware of, was uncovered in 2020 after Dominique Pelicot was arrested for filming under women’s skirts in a supermarket in Carpentras.
When his computer files were searched, investigators discovered thousands of videos and photos showing the assaults on his wife, which served as evidence in this trial and that allowed most of his accomplices to be identified, although it is estimated that there are at least 20 more.
Dominique Pelicot was also found to have intimate images, recorded without consent, of his daughter and daughter-in-law.
Gisèle Pelicot, for her part, has become a global symbol of feminism after deciding that the trial would be public to make “shame swap sides” from the victim to the rapist. EFE
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