Gisèle Pélicot, overwhelmed by the defense, stands firm

The tone rose on Wednesday, September 18 in the courtroom of the Mazan rape trial. The main victim was offended by the questions asked of her by the defense lawyers, but also by the presiding judge.

Since the opening of the media trial known as the Mazan rapes, Gisèle Pélicot, the main victim, had never raised her voice. Invited to the stand this Wednesday afternoon, September 18, the woman who was drugged without her knowledge for a decade by her husband who offered her to men, about fifty of whom are today accused of having raped her, denounced the comments and questions put to her by several defense lawyers and the presiding judge.

“Since I’ve been in this courtroom, I’ve felt humiliated. I’m an alcoholic, I’m an accomplice. You have to have a degree of patience to put up with everything I’ve heard,” Gisèle Pélicot initially lamented when the presiding judge asked her whether she had participated in “the choice of partners,” which she denied, arguing that she didn’t “swing” and didn’t give her consent. “My questions allow you to express yourself,” the presiding judge defended himself, before asking her whether she had been “able to either consent to a sexual act or [de s’]to oppose it.”

“In the state I was in, I couldn’t answer anyone. The videos will attest to that,” replied Gisèle Pélicot, before sharing her feelings: “As a woman, the humiliation is total!” And the main victim of the Mazan rape case castigated the debates around the time stamp. “Is rape a question of time? Every man has the right to a defense, but to talk about minutes of seconds… They came to rape me! The time that passed doesn’t matter,” Gisèle Pélicot fumed, vituperating: “With all the debates, I feel like I’m the guilty one and the 50 victims are behind me. Besides, they should sit in my place!”

“When you see a woman asleep on her bed, isn’t there a moment when you wonder? What do they have instead of brains?” Gisèle Pélicot then asked. And she let her anger burst out: “For me, they are degenerates! Not for a moment did they ask themselves the question. I’m not used to getting angry, but frankly, enough is enough!”

“Rape is rape!”

Asked later by the attorney general what it made her feel to hear a defense attorney say that “there is rape and rape,” Gisèle Pélicot did not hesitate to describe these remarks as “irresponsible.”[s]”. “If it was his wife, his sister?” she asked, considering that “rape is rape”. A response that obviously did not please the person concerned. “I think I’m going to contact the bar association”, got angry Me de Palma for whom Gisèle Pélicot’s response would be a personal indictment. “Did you say it or didn’t you say it?” retorted Gisèle Pélicot. And the lawyer justified himself: “I said that there was rape in its popular journalistic sense and legal rape. That the remarks hurt you, could have shocked you, that was not my intention. I wanted to remind people of the rules of law.”

“Don’t you have exhibitionist tendencies that you don’t admit to?” another lawyer then asked. “It’s incredible, you and your husband are exhibitionists?” Gisèle Pélicot’s lawyer got annoyed this time. “This question is degrading, it’s insulting,” the main person concerned retorted, before saying: “I understand that rape victims don’t file complaints!”