A trial that shocked France and worldwide resulted in Pelicot’s conviction and 20-year prison term on December 19. Fifty other defendants were also found guilty and given sentences ranging from three to fifteen years.
Throughout the three-month trial, Gisele Pelicot, 72, was praised as a hero for her bravery and dignity. She was commended for refusing to give up her right to a closed trial, stating that she wished to shift the blame for rape from victims to those who commit it.
According to one of Gisele’s attorneys, there were no worries about a new trial following the guilty convictions, but Zavarro noted that a new trial will be held because 17 co-defendants have appealed and the remaining defendants have until midnight Monday to make a decision.
Zavarro stated that “it is time to finish judicially” and that an appeal “would force Gisele to undergo a new ordeal, new confrontations, which Dominique Pelicot refuses” to do. “I was shocked to see these appeals, especially [from] people who in the dock apologised to Gisele Pelicot,” Zavarro continued, referring to the convicted ringleader. “I feel like those words are contradicted by filing an appeal.” Prosecutors asked the panel of five judges to impose the maximum term on Dominique Pelicot, who had pleaded guilty and been married to Gisele for fifty years.
In contrast to the prosecution’s demand of four to eighteen years in prison, the court sentenced 46 of the other defendants to three to fifteen years in prison for rape, two for attempted rape, and two for sexual assault.
The appeals rulings are made just weeks before Caroline Darian, the daughter of Dominique and Gisele Pelicot, narrates a television documentary about the use of narcotics to facilitate sexual abuse and rape. After photos of her unconscious and nude body were discovered in the extensive documentation her father kept of his crimes, Darian herself believes Dominique Pelicot drugged and sexually assaulted her.
The 90-minute film, which is scheduled to air on France 2 on January 21, will feature testimonies from six additional victims who were raped after unintentionally taking drugs, just like Gisele Pelicot.
Among them are women who were assaulted by their father, a boss, and at the annual Fete de la Musique street music festival in France when they were just fifteen years old.
At a press conference earlier this month, Darian declared, “We are finally lifting the veil on a social reality which is hugely underestimated and much more widespread in France than people think.”
