PARIS — The ex-husband of Gisele Pelicot won’t appeal his 20-year prison sentence for drugging and raping her and allowing dozens of other men to rape her while she was unconscious, in a case that revolted and transfixed France, his lawyer said Monday.
Dominique Pelicot wants to spare his ex-wife a “new ordeal” of another trial, lawyer Beatrice Zavarro said in an interview with broadcaster France Info.
But she said 17 of the 50 other men also found guilty this month have decided to appeal their sentences after a more than three-month trial that turned the 72-year-old Ms. Pelicot into an icon against sexual violence.
The court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down sentences ranging from three to 15 years imprisonment for the 50 men found guilty of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault on Gisele Pelicot over nearly a decade of shocking abuse orchestrated by her then-husband and inflicted on her unwittingly.
The court found Mr. Pelicot guilty of rape and all other charges against him and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, the maximum possible. At age 72, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. He won’t be eligible to request early release until he’s served at least two-thirds of the sentence.
Ms. Zavarro, his lawyer, said: “He believes that the judicial page should be turned and that this chapter should be considered closed.”
The appeals trial is expected to be in the last third of 2025, the appeals court in the southern city of Nimes said in a statement. It confirmed that 17 of those found guilty filed appeals ahead of a Monday night deadline.
The trial spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture. Mr. Pelicot laced his wife’s food and drink with tranquilizers to render her unconscious. He then invited strangers he met online to take part in sordid rape and abuse fantasies that he acted out with them and filmed in the couple’s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.
Ms. Pelicot’s courage during the bruising trial and her appalling ordeal, inflicted on the retired power company worker in what she had thought was a loving marriage, galvanized campaigners and triggered calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture.
She waived her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and successfully pushed for the hearings and evidence — including her ex-husband’s homemade videos — to be heard in open court, insisting that shame should fall on her abusers, not her.
Ms. Pelicot is not required to attend the appeal hearing but her lawyer, Stephane Babonneau, told reporters Monday she was ready to do so. “She has told us she will be there. Maybe not every day but she says she will go.”
The lawyer added, “From Gisele Pelicot’s point of view, there is no sentence that will give her back what she has lost. All Gisele Pelicot wanted is to have the accused convicted for what they did to her. As for the personal sentences, she respects the decision of the court and finds no solace in them.”
Ms. Navarro said her client, Mr. Pelicot, was “astonished” to see some of the convicted defendants opting to appeal their verdicts, “especially [from] individuals who in the dock apologized to Gisele Pelicot. It seems to me that filing an appeal contradicts those words.”