Begun on Monday, the attorneys general’s indictment concluded this Wednesday, November 27 in the morning. The maximum sentence was requested against Dominique Pelicot. The floor will then pass to the defense lawyers for closing arguments.
The prosecution concluded its indictment this Wednesday, November 27 against the 51 accused in the Mazan rape trial by explaining that “Ordinary rape does not exist. That accidental or involuntary rape does not exist. The verdict handed down by the court at the end of December will deliver “a message of hope to victims of sexual violence”, said Laure Chabaud, one of the two representatives of the public prosecutor at the Vaucluse criminal court, in Avignon. And to add: “You will restore a part of her humanity stolen from Gisèle Pelicot.”
Sentences of four to twenty years in prison were requested by the prosecution against the accused, during an indictment that began Monday morning. The minimum sentence was requested against Joseph C., 69 years old, prosecuted for sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot, the maximum sentence against Dominique Pelicot, described as the “conductor” of the decade of rapes against his wife, whom he drugged with anxiolytics to deliver to strangers recruited on the Internet. All other required sentences range between ten and eighteen years of criminal imprisonment.
Verdicts expected on December 20 at the latest
These requisitions 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 45 co-defendants prosecuted for aggravated rape or attempted rape whose cases were discussed on Monday and Tuesday, the prosecution thus requested sentences of twelve to seventeen years of criminal imprisonment for 32 of them.
Immediately this Wednesday, the two attorneys general, Jean-François Mayet and Laure Chabaud, will hand over to the defense lawyers. And around thirty black dresses will follow one another until December 13, in Avignon, for the 50 co-defendants. Me Béatrice Zavarro will be the first to plead, on behalf of Dominique Pelicot. The only one who fully admitted the facts from the beginning. After her, the pleadings of the lawyers of the 50 co-defendants will begin Thursday morning.
In addition to the arguments concerning “the influence” and the «manipulation» of which their clients would have been victims at the hands of Dominique Pelicot, who would have made them believe in the sexual scenario of a libertine couple, several lawyers should even try to plead acquittal. Thus, for at least 33 accused, they have already explained that they were going to plead an alteration of discernment. After the defense, there will then be one week left for the five professional magistrates of the Vaucluse criminal court to deliberate and then give their verdict, expected on December 20 at the latest.
Source: www.liberation.fr
