The Avignon court’s verdict against Dominique Pelicot’s co-defendants provoked the anger of many demonstrators.
After three months of hearings and indignation, the Mazan trial reached its conclusion this Thursday, December 19 in the Vaucluse criminal court, in Avignon. Almost all of the fifty-one defendants, aged 27 to 74, had been on trial since September 2 for “aggravated rape” of Gisèle Pélicot. Her husband, Dominique Pelicot, had drugged her for around ten years to submit her to these men whom he recruited on the Internet and invited to the marital home. At the end of this trial, which highlighted “the banality of rape” in the words of Gisèle Pelicot, the 51 accused were all declared guilty of the facts.
For his part, Dominique Pelicot, 72, was sentenced to the maximum sentence, i.e. 20 years of criminal imprisonment, as requested by the public prosecutor. The Vaucluse court also found him guilty of all charges. In detail, we list aggravated rape on Gisèle Pelicot, an attempted rape and aggravated rape on the wife of a co-accused, but also the capture of images of a sexual nature concerning her daughter Caroline and her ex-daughters-in-law .
This prison sentence is associated with a security sentence of “two thirds”, specified the president of the court, Roger Arata, adding that at the end of the sentence, his situation “will be the subject of a re-examination to judge of its safety.” In addition, he will be registered in the national sex offender file. Despite the scale of his conviction, many demonstrators went to the court in Avignon, in Vaucluse, to chant their dissatisfaction with the jury’s verdict. The people on site are in fact outraged at the sentences handed down to the co-defendants, who were indeed found guilty, but sentenced to prison terms significantly lower than those requested by the prosecution. Their sentence for rape, ranging from 5 to 8 years, is lower than those handed down this year for rape: the average is in fact 11 years for verdicts handed down in 2024 for this type of crime.
“We love you Judith! Shame on Justice”, they intoned together, accompanied by signs such as “Mazan rapists, sleeping horror” or “Rapist your bi** in a blender”. On Saturday, December 14, there were already more than 600 people who mobilized to support Gisèle Pelicot and all the other victims of sexual violence. According to Public Senatethis end of the trial is far from closing the public debate since it “questions the advisability of changing the definition of rape in the penal code”. It is also not excluded that the public prosecutor will appeal for a new trial.