Lawyers for dozens of defendants in a French mass rape trial begin their closing arguments on Wednesday, November 27, after prosecutors demanded lengthy jail terms for the suspects. The main defendant, Dominique Pelicot, has admitted enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his wife while she was drugged and unconscious.
Prosecutors have called for a maximum 20-year jail term for the 71-year-old who has been on trial in the southern city of Avignon since September with 49 other men for organizing the repeated rape and sexual abuse of Gisèle Pelicot. Prosecutors have sought jail terms of between 10 and 18 years for most of the co-defendants, with a four–year punishment sought in only one case.
"With your verdict, you will make clear that there is no such thing as ordinary rape," a lead prosecutor, Laure Chabaud, told the court Wednesday. "You will deliver a message of hope to the victims of sexual violence" and "return a part of humanity to Gisèle Pelicot that she was robbed of," she said. The trial has made Gisèle Pelicot, who insisted the hearings be held in public, a feminist icon in the fight for women against sexual abuse.
Kicking off closing arguments by some 30 defense lawyers – scheduled to last until December 13 – is Béatrice Zavarro, the lawyer for Dominique Pelicot who has been described as the "conductor" behind the sexual abuse of his former wife, the details of which have shocked France.
The decade-long abuse was only uncovered when Dominique Pelicot was arrested for filming up women's skirts, leading investigators to discover his meticulously kept records of the visitors to the family home in the town of Mazan. Pelicot is the only one of the 50 men to have fully confessed to the crimes he is accused of.
Observers say his lawyer Zavarro, has an impossible task on her hands. If convicted, her client would be considered to be one of France's worst-ever sex offenders. But Zavarro refuses to describe her client as a "monster," insisting she is a lawyer for a man who has committed "monstrous" crimes. Zavarro said her mission was "for us to understand, even if we detest him."
Lawyers for Pelicot's co-defendants are to lay out their closing arguments starting Thursday. Most are expected to argue that their clients were manipulated by Pelicot to sexually abuse Gisèle Pelicot. Some have already argued that they assumed Pelicot had his wife's consent, and that they were playing a part in a libertine sex game. The verdicts in the case are expected by December 20.