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full screenGisèle Pelicot in the courtroom on Thursday. Photo: Lewis Joly/AP/TT
French President Emmanuel Macron thanks Gisèle Pelicot for her courage, the day after the high-profile rape verdict against her ex-husband and 50 other men was handed down.
“Thank you Gisèle Pelicot … your courage and your dignity have touched and inspired France and the world,” writes Macron on X.
All 51 defendants in the French case are judged guilty, most of them for aggravated rape. Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in prison for having drugged his wife for ten years and offered strange men to rape her.
72-year-old Gisèle Pelicot has been hailed as a feminist hero for her decision to hold an open trial and her refusal to be ashamed of what she suffered.