The Avignon criminal court has sentenced Dominique PelicotGisèle’s husband, guilty of repeatedly drugging and raping his wife for almost a decade, and inviting dozens of strangers to rape her unconscious body in their home. This is the maximum penalty in France for aggravated rape.
The Court has found the 51 defendants guilty of the rape and assault of Gisèle Pelicot. The Court of Avignon ruled that all of them are guilty of different crimes, although in some cases it reduced the level of sentences with respect to the charges requested by the Prosecutor’s Office.
The sentences issued against the 51 accused of the rapes and assaults under chemical submission of Gisèle Pelicot ranged from 3 to 20 years in prisonwith the victim’s ex-husband, Dominique, sentenced to the longest sentence, although when he completes two-thirds of the sentence he could be eligible for conditional release.
Pelicot sentenced to 20 years, the maximum sentence for continuously drugging, raping and recording his wife.
Several of the defendants with the least severe sentences will not have to go to prison either and, in general, although all were found guilty of different crimes, the sentences handed down were lower than what was requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, according to reports Efe.
Dominique Pelicot, 72 years old, was the mastermind of the multiple rapes suffered by the victim, his ex-wife and with whom he was married for 50 years. He abused her and put her at risk of death from 2011 to 2020, drugging her with high doses of anxiolytics and inviting other men to rape her, after contacting them online.
The lowest sentence requested by the Prosecutor’s Office, 4 years, is for another man who is accused of sexual assault, without charges of rape. The rest face requests for sentences ranging from 10 to 18 years in prison for aggravated rape.
Gisèle’s reaction
In his first statement after the ruling, Gisèle Pelicot He assured that he respects the sentences pronounced against his attackers, while saying that His process also serves “unrecognized victims.”
“Right now I think about the unrecognized victims whose stories remain in the shadows, I want them to know that we share the same struggle,” he said in the Avignon court shortly after the sentences were handed down against the 51 convicts.
The victim read a brief statement to the media and only at the end, when asked by a journalist, did he point out: “I respect the court and the decision.”
He said this after many of the people who had come to the court door to support him showed their disappointment at the sentences handed down, In most cases, much lower than what the Prosecutor’s Office had requested.
However, Gisèle Pelicot avoided entering into assessments in her first statement and preferred to send a conciliatory message.
“I wanted, by opening the doors of this process, that society made its debates its own. I have not regretted it at any time,” said the victim, who He fought for court hearings to be public even when some videos of the rapes recorded by her husband were shown.
“I am confident now in our ability to collectively face a future in which everyone, men and women, can live in harmony with mutual respect and understanding,” he added.
Pelicot thanked all the signs of support that he has received throughout the process and said that they gave him “strength to go to the hearing every day.”
He also had words of gratitude for his lawyers, journalists, victim aid associations but, above all, for his family, his three children and his four grandchildren: “They are the future and for them I wanted to carry out this fight.” “.
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, is already a global feminist symbolby deciding that the trial would be public “so that shame could change sides.” In fact, she has become one of the most influential women of the year and thousands of people around the world have spoken out for her and for rape victims.
En la pequeña ciudad de Aviñón, de hecho, es parada constantemente por ciudadanos, especialmente mujeres, que la animan a seguir su lucha, que pasa también por un cambio legislativo para que el consentimiento sea el elemento central de toda relación sexual entre dos personas, como ya ocurre en países como España.
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