The banners, slogans and smoke bombs of feminist activists returned – this time outside the courthouse in Nîmes. Once again, people lined up to get into the hearing, including some spectators from the first trial who had come from nearby Avignon, where the initial trial was held. The frantic cameras and microphones were back, kept at a distance by police. And here again was Gisèle Pelicot, with her square-cut bangs, sunglasses, elegance and discreet smile. She was greeted with applause and cries of "Thank you, Gisèle" as she passed by. The appeal in France's landmark mass-rape case opened on Monday, October 6 – more than nine months after the verdict. It hardly seemed so.
The feeling of déjà vu vanished as soon as the courtroom doors closed. The 50 defendants from the original trial had been reduced to one. (The 51st remains a fugitive.) Husamettin Dogan, 44, the only one of the 17 original appellants not to have withdrawn his appeal, waited for the swarm of cameras to disperse before removing the surgical mask, dark glasses and beret hiding his face. Opposite him, Pelicot sat next to her son Florian, but her other children, Caroline and David, were absent. The family has been fractured.
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