The trial in the Pélicot case was suspended this Friday. It will only be able to resume quickly if the health of the main accused allows it.
Since Monday, Dominique Pélicot has not shown up at the Mazan rape trial. Among 51 men, he remains the main accused, having drugged his wife to deliver her to strangers who raped her. The latter is ill and deemed unable to participate in the hearing. The father is reportedly suffering from renal colic. The smooth running of the trial is seriously impacted.
On Tuesday, Dominique Pélicot was due to appear but was excused. The next day, he briefly appeared in the dock, but was holding his head in his hands. The presiding judge then decided not to continue. A medical assessment then concluded “that appropriate treatment should be put in place, with possible hospitalization, and a possible discharge date on Monday,” the presiding judge, Roger Arata, announced Thursday at the opening of the hearing. The trial was then suspended until next week.
His ex-wife, Gisèle Pélicot, the main victim, and his children refused to appear on Thursday due to the absence of the accused, although they were due to be heard. If Dominique Pélicot returns quickly, they will all be questioned as a priority, before returning to the co-accused, the first of whom were questioned on Wednesday. However, even for these, it is difficult to have them take the stand in the absence of the main accused, who orchestrated everything. It is impossible, for example, to question Jean-Pierre M, who allegedly raped his wife with Dominique Pélicot, because the two men accuse each other of being behind the acts.
The trial postponed?
Dominique’s lawyer said he hoped the trial would resume early next week. BFMTV : “We all hope that my client will be present on Monday or Tuesday. There can be no trial without Dominique Pelicot’s presence.” Questioned on the fact that her client could thus seek to avoid the trial, the lawyer formally refutes this hypothesis: “He was waiting for his trial, he wanted to speak and be confronted with his wife and children.” “We simply have to give him time to recover,” she assured.
Will Dominique Pélicot really be able to appear on Monday? Nothing is less certain. A postponement of the trial will be considered if the accused becomes “permanently unavailable”, reports The World. “Either Pelicot is there [lundi], and we continue. If he is not there for one, two or three days, we will extend the suspension. But if he is permanently unavailable, the case will be postponed.”said the president of the court.
This would waste a lot of time, as the trial is already scheduled to last until December 13. In the event of a postponement, in fact, “everything will have to be re-established: a schedule, the availability of the courtroom… And what about those who are in detention? Because at that point, I can assume that there will be requests for release,” said Dominique Pélicot’s lawyer.