Reversing the initial decision of its president, the Vaucluse criminal court decided, on Friday, October 4, that the videos and photographs broadcast during the debates in the Mazan rape trial will henceforth be broadcast in the presence of the press and the public.
This decision was announced by the president of the court, Roger Arata, after a debate of almost two hours at the beginning of the hearing on Friday, followed by a ninety-minute judicial deliberation. She is described as “victory” by the lawyers of Gisèle Pelicot.
However, the dissemination of these images will be preceded by a “Announcement that allows sensitive people and minors to leave the room”the magistrate specified. These transmissions will not be “unsystematic” and will only take place in cases “strictly necessary for the manifestation of truth”at the request of one of the parties, Arata added.
On September 20 “cconsidering that these images are indecent and shocking”, Mr. Arata had announced that these videos would be broadcast “in the exclusive presence of the parties and the court” and that the room would be evacuated beforehand. A decision deplored by Mrs. Pélicot’s lawyers, for whom “You have to have the courage to face yourself” to the reality of rape.
Five days later, these lawyers again asked for the restrictions to be lifted, in the name of Gisèle Pelicot’s fight against sexual violence. And it was over their written conclusions that the parties debated at length in court on Friday morning.
“A meaning to their suffering”
“For Gisèle Pelicot, it is already too late, the damage has already been done”argued on Friday one of Pélicot’s lawyers, Mr. Stéphane Babonneau. “But if these same debates, through their publicity, prevent other women from having to go through this, then she will find meaning in her suffering.”.
However, several lawyers for the 50 co-defendants in this extraordinary trial fiercely opposed the presence of the public and the press during the dissemination of the videos. “Justice does not need that to be approved, what sense do these nauseating projections have? They invited us to a screening test for a first case. One movie wasn’t enough? »argued Olivier Lantelme unsuccessfully. He was referring to the broadcast, on Thursday, September 19, of chilling images in which an accused was seen abusing a completely inert Gisèle Pelicot.
The videos of the events relating to some of the accused will be shown on Friday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. after the suspension, the president of the court announced.
