At the Mazan rape trial, in Avignon (south of France), videos and photos were broadcast this Friday, October 4 for the first time in the presence of the public. However, they did not change the defense of the accused concerned, almost all of whom maintained that they thought they were participating in a libertine “scenario”.
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On the 22nd day of the Mazan case trial, the president of the Vaucluse criminal court finally reversed his initial decision. After a long debate between the parties, he decided at midday that the images broadcast during this emblematic trial of violence against women and chemical submission would henceforth be broadcast in the presence of the press and the public.
The victim’s lawyers, Gisèle Pelicotdescribed the decision as “ victory “. “ But a victory in a fight that should not have been fought », Estimated Me Stéphane Babonneau, according to whom French law has granted victims of rape for more than 40 years the right to decide on advertising or not debates.
And as of the afternoon hearing, nine videos and a handful of photos were shown. All concerned the seven accused, out of the 51 tried, whose cases were being examined this week. The dissemination of these images, carefully archived by Dominique Pelicot, who admitted to having drugged his wife Gisèle from 2011 to 2020, without her knowledge, in order to rape her and have her raped by dozens of men recruited on the internet, has the objective of confronting the accused with their statements. Most of them claim to have believed they were participating in the fantasy of a swinging couple or not to have realized Gisèle Pelicot’s state of unconsciousness.
Inflexible defendants
For nearly an hour and a half, these images were shown on the screens of a breathless courtroom, and on those of an adjoining room where around sixty members of the public were able to take their seats. Gisèle Pelicot, on the civil parties’ bench, remained most of the time leaning on her mobile phone, while opposite her, in the accused box, on the other side of the room, her ex-husband covered his eyes with one hand or looked away.
The other defendants adopted varied attitudes. Some watching each other without flinching as they bustle around Gisèle Pelicot, lying on the bed in the bedroom of their marital home in Mazan, others preferring to look at the floor. Briefly questioned, however, all maintained their line of defense. Jean T., 52 years old, affirms that he has “not still no memory » of this evening. Redouane E. assures that he was “ terrified » by Dominique Pelicot, even if “ it’s not visible “. A third explains not having heard Gisèle Pelicot’s snoring or having “ hoped she wakes up at the end “.
Access to images for the press is debated
On September 20, after the broadcast of the first videos and photos, the magistrate decided to exclude the press and the public from subsequent screenings, due to their “ indecent and shocking “. But Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers decided to challenge this measure, receiving the support of the public prosecutor this Friday morning.
For Ms. Pelicot’s other lawyer, Me Antoine Camus, these videos ” collapse the thesis of accidental rape » and show that he “ was actually about hatred of women “. “ Justice does not need that to pass, what is the point of these nauseating projections? », On the other hand, Mr. Olivier Lantelme, one of the defense lawyers, argued. The verdict is expected in mid-December.
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