French prosecutors seek 20 years jail in mass rape case

[Pelican Press 0]

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French prosecutors seek 20 years jail in mass ***** case

French prosecutors have asked for the maximum 20-year prison sentence for Dominique Pelicot, who organised the repeated mass ***** of his then-wife by knocking her unconscious with drugs and inviting dozens of strangers to ****** her in the family home.

Pelicot, 71, has admitted the charges in a trial that attracted worldwide attention and turned into an examination of the pervasiveness of ******* ********* in France and beyond.

Fifty other men also stand trial for participating in the **** acts.

The prosecutors, who will over the next two days say what sentences they seek against the co-accused, rejected the arguments made by many of the men that they did not realise they were ******* Gisele Pelicot or had not intended to do it.

Gisele Pelicot appeared motionless while the accused abused her in thousands of videos and pictures recorded by her then-husband and shown in court over the past weeks.

“The accused are trying to shirk responsibility by saying they thought Gisele Pelicot consented,” public prosecutor Laure Chabaud told the court on Monday.

“But it’s not possible, today, in 2024, to consider that,” Chabaud said, adding that video and pictures clearly showed Gisele Pelicot was unconscious and therefore unable to give her consent.

As for Dominique Pelicot, who admitted to ******* his wife as well as organising her ***** by others, “the maximum sentence is 20 years, which is a lot … but at the same time … too little in view of the seriousness of the acts that were committed and repeated,” Chabaud said.

The prosecutors also said they were seeking a 17-year sentence for Jean-Pierre Marechal, 63, who has admitted to working with Dominique Pelicot to ***** his own wife Cilia and for both men to ***** her, after the men met on a now-shuttered website.

The verdicts and sentences are expected around December 20.

Gisele Pelicot, 71, could have demanded the trial be kept behind closed doors but instead asked for it be held in public, saying she hoped it would help other women speak up and show that victims have nothing to be ashamed of.

Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer Beatrice Zavarro told reporters it was not a surprise that prosecutors had sought the longest sentence possible.

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