A maximum of thirteen of the 51 men sentenced in December in Avignon, during the Mazan rape trial, will appear again in the fall, facing a popular jury this time, before the Gard Assize Court, to try to obtain a reduction in their sorrows.
Among them will not, however, be the “Conduct” From this decade of rape on Gisèle Pelicot, her ex-husband Dominique, sentenced by the criminal court of Vaucluse to 20 years’ imprisonment, a sentence accompanied by a two-thirds safety measure (about 14 years).
The septuagenarian should however be called upon to testify at the helm, but only as a witness, during this new judicial stage scheduled between October 6 and November 21, before the Assize Court of Nîmes.
“We learn, with Dominique Pelicot, the dates of the Appeal Assizes. My client is available to appeal judges to reiterate what he has always argued: namely that each of the accused was informed of the rape proposal he was formulating, with the sedation of Ms. Pelicot “his lawyer told AFP, Me Béatrice Zavarro.
He did not himself appeal because he « refuse » force “Gisèle to a new test, to new clashes”. For Dominique Pelicot, aged 72, “Madame Pelicot is not and has never been her opponent”she had explained beforehand.
13 appellants, or even less?
A reverse choice initially made by 17 of his 50 co -accused, these men whom he had recruited on the internet to come and rape his wife, drugged to anxiolytics, at their home in Mazan (Vaucluse) between 2011 and 2020.
Four has since desisted, hence the number of 13 accused in this second trial, which this time will therefore take place before an assize court, that is to say a court made up of popular jurors. The Criminal Court of Vaucluse was made up of professional magistrates.
By the opening of this second trial, these 13 appellants still have the possibility of withdrawing.
Most of which are guilty of rapes on Gisèle Pelicot, the 50 co -accused, aged 27 to 74, had been sentenced to penalties ranging from three years in prison, two of which were suspended, for a retiree tried for sexual assault, at 15 years old criminal imprisonment for a man who came six times rape Ms. Pelicot.
The latter, which has become a feminist icon, in particular for having refused that the first trial stands in camera, so that the “Shame changes camp” And no longer weighs on the shoulders of rape victims, should also be present for this new trial.
The septuagenarian did not “Not afraid” From a new trial, I told AFP Antoine Camus, one of his lawyers. “She intends to be and she is preparing to face this new trial with the same determination and the same courage”he insisted.
Cold cases
The first instance trial had caused a real shock wave in France as abroad, becoming emblematic of questions of gender-based and sexual violence and more broadly men-female relationships.
The combat of Gisèle “Force us all and must be prosecuted”had thus commented on Prime Minister François Bayrou. “Thank you Gisèle”had reacted to X the leaders of the Spanish and German governments Pedro Sanchez and Olaf Scholz.
Even if he will therefore only appear as a witness, Dominique Pelicot has not finished with justice. Pôle charged by the pole « cold cases » From Nanterre, he could still be tried for an attempted rape in 1999 in Seine-et-Marne, but above all a rape followed by murder in 1991 in Paris, that of Sophie Narme, a young real estate agent of 23 years.
Thursday he had been auditioned for more than four hours on these two files by an investigating judge of this pole of Nanterre. He had then maintained his version of the facts again, recognizing only his involvement in the 1999 case, after being confused by his DNA.
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