In Avignon, at the Pelicot trial, the Court left to deliberate after four months of debate. Dominique Pelicot is accused of having drugged his wife to rape her and have her raped by dozens of men. There are 50 of them appearing alongside him. Dominique Pelicot, the main accused, spoke one last time.
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Dominique Pelicot was the first to be interviewed, his lawyer the first to plead. It was therefore he who once again spoke first this Monday morning, before the Vaucluse Criminal Court, reports our correspondent in Avignon, Tanita Fallet.
“ I would like to start by saluting the courage of my ex-wife », declared the septuagenarian, tried for having drugged his wife with anxiolytics for ten years, from 2011 to 2020, to rape her and deliver her to dozens of men he recruited on the internet. “ I ask her and the rest of my family to please accept my apologies. “, he also addressed to his family. “ I ask them for forgiveness. »« I wanted to say that I love them “.
Facing him, Gisèle Pelicot had her impassive face as usual. But these words were very important for Dominique Pelicot according to his lawyer, Maître Zavarro: “ It was the last face to face with his family and his wife. He wanted to apologize mainly to his family. He needed to express his feelings about what he experienced for three and a half months. »
He also thanked his lawyer, without whom he would not have held out. He praised her humanity. Me Zavarro hopes to have succeeded in avoiding twenty years of criminal imprisonment to Dominique Pelicot: “ I wait to have been heard and understood. I very sincerely and very humbly hope that the Court will be able to move away somewhat from the legal maximum which was pronounced and claimed by the prosecution. »
The main accused speaks of his “ inner shame » and now wants to be forgotten
Sitting in the glass box where he has been appearing since September 2 with 17 other detained accused, he reaffirmed having said “ the total truth » during the 14 weeks of debates, regretting that sometimes his attitude had “ could be interpreted as casualness “.
Dominique Pelicot now claims to have the intention of being forgotten, evoking his “ inner shame » : « I have a shell that I created for myself, otherwise we die in prison », continued the one who was described by several lawyers of the co-defendants as “ the ogre of Mazan “, A ” wolf » who would have tricked their clients into believing in the scenario of a libertine couple where the wife would pretend to be sleeping.
Against his co-defendants, most of them prosecuted for aggravated rape, the prosecution had requested 10 to 18 years of imprisonment against 49 of them, prosecuted for aggravated rape, four years of prison being requested against the last, prosecuted only for ” touching” on Gisèle Pelicot.
On the civil parties’ bench, Gisèle Pelicot was alone on Monday, with one of her two lawyers. None of his three children had made the trip to hear their father’s last words. And as is now a habit, she received a standing ovation from the public as she left the courtroom.
The delivery of the deliberations expected at the earliest Thursday morning
With this last statement from the accused, three and a half months of debate in an extraordinary trial ended Monday morning, while awaiting the verdict: “ We will therefore go to the deliberations chamber and will only come out when we have made our decision. », announced President Roger Arata, around 10:15 a.m., specifying that “ the deliberations will take place at 9:30 a.m. Thursday “.
A date theoretical » which could be postponed to Thursday afternoon or Friday morning depending on « of the duration of our deliberation “, however, immediately added the magistrate.
As for the risk of flight of the 32 accused appearing free, all of whom risk prison sentences, in view of the prosecution’s requisitions, he confirmed that they would remain free “ until the deliberation is pronounced “. But ” they are required to remain available and present themselves on Thursday December 19 at 9:00 a.m. “, he insisted.
Also readMazan affair: Gisèle Pelicot castigates a “macho” society which must “change its outlook on rape”