Sentences of 4 to 20 years in prison were requested by the prosecution against the 51 accused at the Mazan rape trial. The indictment began Monday morning and concluded this Wednesday morning, November 27, before the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon.
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In this extraordinary trialthe minimum sentence of 4 years in prison was requested against Joseph C., 69 years old, only prosecuted for sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot. The maximum sentence was requested against Dominique Pelicot, described as the “ conductor » of the decade of rapes against his wife, whom he drugged with anxiolytics to deliver her to strangers recruited on the internet.
All other required sentences range from 10 to 18 years of criminal imprisonment. The public prosecutor requested 10 years in prison for eleven defendants, 11 years for two, 12 years for thirteen, 13 years for six, 14 years for six, 15 years for three, 16 years for four, 17 years for three and 18 years for the last one, one of the four men who came six times to the Pelicot marital home to rape Gisèle Pelicot.
These requisitions of Jean-François Mayet and Laure Chabaud are significantly more severe than the general average of convictions for rape in France, which was 11.1 years in 2022, according to the Ministry of Justice. Against the 50 co-defendants prosecuted for aggravated rape or attempted rape whose cases have been discussed since Monday morning, the prosecution has requested sentences of 12 to 18 years of criminal imprisonment for 36 of them.
The prosecution concluded its indictment on Wednesday against the 51 accused in the Mazan rape trial with these words. “ By your verdict, you will mean that ordinary rape does not exist. That accidental or involuntary rape does not exist. You will deliver a message of hope to victims of sexual violence. You will return a part of her humanity stolen from Gisèle Pelicot », Said Laure Chabaud, one of the two representatives of the public prosecutor, while addressing the criminal court of Vaucluse, in Avignon. “ By your verdict, you will mean to the women of this country that there is no inevitability to suffer and to the men of this country no inevitability to act. You will guide us in the education of our sons, because it is through education that change will come about. »
“ Fundamentally change relationships between men and women »
At the start of their indictment on Monday, the two representatives of the public prosecutor warned that “ lack of consent (by Gisèle Pelicot) could not be ignored by the accused “. We can no longer say in 2024 “since she didn’t say anything, she agreed”, it’s from another age », added Laure Chabaud, thus refuting any possibility of an “implied consent” from Ms. Pelicot, or of a consent “by proxy” which would have been given by her husband.
Opening the prosecution’s indictment, Jean-François Mayet, deputy prosecutor general, estimated that beyond the sentences, ” the issue » of this trial was to “ fundamentally change the relationship between men and women “. At the end of the indictment on Wednesday morning shortly after 10 a.m., the hearing was suspended until the beginning of the afternoon, for the first pleading of the defense, in this case that of Béatrice Zavarro, the lawyer for Dominique Pelicot. The pleadings will continue on Thursday with those of Patrick Gontard, lawyer for Jean-Pierre M., 63, separately accused in this trial.
The only one of the 51 accused not to be prosecuted for raping Gisèle Pelicot, he is tried for having reproduced the same process of chemical submission on his own wife, in order to rape her, in the company of his mentor. The prosecution demanded 17 years of criminal imprisonment against him.
Three other lawyers will argue that day for their clients. Then the other defense pleadings will last until December 13, according to a provisional schedule shared Tuesday with the press. The verdict is expected no later than December 20.
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