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LAST UPDATE | 20 Dec 2024
FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL Macron has thanked Gisele Pelicot for her bravery amid her husband’s sentencing yesterday.
Dominique Pelicot, who was accused of enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily-sedated wife, has been found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
The man, 72, had already admitted to drugging Gisele Pelicot for almost a decade so he and strangers he recruited online could rape her.
His 50 co-defendants in the case were also convicted by the court, with no acquittals. Their sentences range from 3 to 20 years.
Tension was palpable in the courtroom, where a heavy police presence was deployed.
Many defendants arrived at the hearing with their bags packed ready for prison. One of them was in tears as he hugged his companion before entering the courtroom.
Delivering sentence, presiding judge of the criminal court in Avignon, Roger Arata, said Dominique Pelicot will not be eligible for parole until he has served two thirds of his sentence.
In a message posted on X, Macron thanked Gisele Pelicot for her courage.
Merci Gisèle Pélicot.
— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) December 20, 2024
Pour ce mot de justice au nom duquel vous avez affronté l’épreuve tête haute.
Pour les femmes, qui ont pour toujours une éclaireuse pour parler et lutter.
Pour nous tous, car votre dignité et votre courage ont ému et inspiré la France et le monde. pic.twitter.com/6203dON8t4
“Thank you Gisèle Pélicot.
“For this word of justice in the name of which you faced the ordeal with your head held high,” he wrote.
“For women, who forever have a scout to speak and fight for.
“For all of us, because your dignity and your courage have moved and inspired France and the world.”
Speaking outside the courtroom following yesterday’s verdicts, Gisele Pelicot said she felt very emotional and that the case had been “a very difficult test for me”.
She said she was thinking of her three children and her grandchildren, as well as the other families affected by the case and the ”unrecognised victims whose stories often remain in the shadows”.
“You must know you share my struggle,” she said.
She expressed her “deepest gratitude” to everyone who had supported her during the trial, including her lawyers. “This really gave me strength to come back day after day for this long trial.”
She also thanked the journalists who have covered the trial for “the faithful and respectful treatment of the case” that they have given.
Gisele Pelicot said she did not regret opening the trial to the public.
“I wanted when I started on 2 September to ensure that society could actually see what was happening,” she said.
I never have regretted this decision.
“I have now faith in our capacity to collectively take hold of a future in which everybody, women and men, can live together in harmony, in respect and mutual understanding.”
Asked about the verdicts in the case, she said she respects the court and the decisions of the court.
She left the court to loud cheers and chants of ‘Merci Gisele’ from the crowd who had gathered outside to support her.
Gisele Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero at home and abroad for waiving her right to a closed trial and standing up to her aggressors in court.
In his final statement on Monday. Dominique Pelicot reaffirmed that he had told “the whole truth” since the beginning of the trial on September 2.
“I would like to start by hailing the courage of my ex-wife,” he said sitting in the glass defendants’ box.
“I regret what I did, making (my family) suffer… I ask them for forgiveness,” he said.
“I can tell my whole family that I love them,” he said.
While Gisele Pelicot was present in court on Monday, their three children, pointedly, did not come to court to hear their father’s last statement.
Turning to the five judges who will issue the verdict, he said: “There you go, you have the rest of my life in your hands.”
As she left the court, supporters greeted her with applause and shouts of “bravo Gisele!”
Several defence lawyers have attempted to shift the totality of the responsibility to Dominique Pelicot, arguing their clients were victims of a “monster” who had manipulated them into assaulting Gisele Pelicot.
Prosecutors have acknowledged the severity of their sentencing demands for the other accused, which are above the national average terms for rape convictions, but have emphasised the importance of the trial in sending a message to women.
After Dominique Pelicot, all the other accused were given the chance to make final statements on Monday, although half of them simply said “nothing to add”.
Around 15 of the men, however, chose to ask Gisele Pelicot for forgiveness.
“It is indeed your body that I subjected to this rape,” declared Cedric G., 51.
“I apologise to Mrs Pelicot, I regret it and I ask her forgiveness,” declared Romain V., 63, one of four accused who responded six times to Dominique Pelicot’s invitation posted on the Internet.
Another accused who went six times to the Pelicot family home in the town of Mazan in southern France, Jerome V., 46, said that “whatever sentence” he is given at the end of the week, he will not appeal, “out of respect for the victim, so that she does not have to endure” a new trial.
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