17 men appeal against convictions

Dominique Pelicot, the 72-year-old man who drugged and raped his wife Gisèle and recruited dozens of men to rape her over a decade, will not appeal his 20-year prison sentence, his lawyer Béatrice Zavarro said.

However, 17 of the 49 men who were convicted of raping or sexually assaulting Pelicot at Dominique’s behest have said they will appeal.

More could follow before the appeal deadline closes at midnight on December 30.

Zavarro told French media that Dominique Pelicot, who admitted his guilt, had decided not to appeal because he did not want to inflict a “new ordeal” on Pelicot, who attended the court for the vast majority of the 15-week trial. .

“He felt that this decision was in line with the position he had always taken at trial, namely that Ms. Pelicot was not and had never been his adversary,” Ms. Zavarro said, adding that Dominique Pelicot wanted to “end” with this. case.

You will have to be present in court as a witness during the appeal trial.

Although Pelicot is not required to attend the proceedings, his lawyer Stéphane Babonneau told French media that he would “face those who appealed. He is not afraid of that, although he would obviously have preferred it to end here.”

Under French law, a new trial will need to be held within the next 12 months. However, unlike the first trial, it will be tried by three magistrates and a jury made up of nine members of the public.

While this will not necessarily result in harsher sentences, the trial’s huge buzz and media coverage may mean that the jury ends up being less lenient than the judges.

Although they will be carefully examined, “jurors are humans like you and me and may have preconceived ideas,” lawyer Hansu Yalaz told the BBC.

Among the men who have appealed is Charly Arbo, now 30, who was sentenced to 13 years in prison for raping Pelicot on six separate occasions when he was in his early 20s.

Construction worker Simoné Mekenese, 43, and nurse Redouane El Farihi, 55, sentenced to nine and eight years respectively, have also appealed.

Many of the men argued that Pelicot “manipulated” them into raping his wife and that they did not know that she had not given consent.

“From the beginning, my client has said that… he never intended to rape Gisele Pelicot,” said Mekenese’s lawyer, Yannick Prat, adding that the nine-year prison sentence was “disproportionate.”

He admitted the prospect of facing a popular jury could result in a harsher sentence, but said he would be “absolutely happy” to work with jurors.

“I will ask you to put yourself in the shoes of all the parties in this trial,” he said.

Lawyer Louis-Alain Lemaire said one of his clients, sentenced to eight years in prison, appealed the guilty verdict because “there was no criminal intent on his part.”

But other defense attorneys believe an appeal would be a risky gamble.

On the day the verdicts were handed down, lawyer Patrick Gontard told the BBC that while appeals are usually made in the hope of reducing a few years of prison sentences, all of the men – including his client – had already received sentences. lighter than those that had been asked by the prosecutor.

Dominique Pelicot, whom his daughter Caroline once called “one of the worst sexual predators of the last 20 years,” drugged, raped and incited others to rape his wife Gisèle for at least a decade.

He filmed many of the rapes, allowing investigators to locate dozens of men. Fifty people were eventually arrested, but about twenty people were never identified and are believed to remain at large.

The court found 47 of the men guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.

Six men were allowed to walk free from court, in most cases due to time they had already spent in pretrial detention.

The trial, which lasted from September to December, attracted worldwide attention thanks to Gisèle Pelicot’s decision to renounce her anonymity and open the trial to the public and the media.

She said she did it to help other rape victims: “I want them to say: if Madame Pelicot did it, I can do it too.”

“Rape victims often feel ashamed, but it’s not our place to be ashamed. It’s up to them,” she said.