Although the main victim of the Mazan rape trial, Gisèle Pelicot, wants the trial to be public from the start, the president of the court announced on Friday 20 September that photographs and videos implicating the accused will be made public. “at the request of one or more parties” and in the absence of the public and the press.
“Broadcasts will not be systematic. If one or more videos are to be broadcast, this will be done at the request of one or more parties, for the sole purpose of revealing the truth.announced Judge Roger Arata, who is presiding over the trial which will continue until December at the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon. “Considering that these images are indecent and shocking, this will be done in the presence only of the parties to the trial and the court.”Arata added, thus excluding the presence of the public and journalists.
A decision denounced by one of M’s lawyersme Pelicot, Stéphane Babonneau, for whom “You have to have the courage to face yourself” to the reality of rape, in a trial that “We must change society”. “But for this society to change, we must have the courage to face what rape really is, in a case where it is rare to have precisely the accurate and real representation of what rape is, and not simply a description in a report.”He added. Questioned by Agence France-Presse (AFP), M.’s other lawyerme Pelicot, M.my Antoine Camus clarified that there was no possible recourse.
“Without this evidence there would be no trial”
The announcement by the presiding judge comes one day after the release of a first video showing Dominique Pelicot, the main defendant, and Jacques C., one of his 50 co-defendants, having sex with the former’s wife, Gisèle. Pelicot is visibly unconscious. For four minutes, the only sounds heard in the courtroom are the snores, the creaking of the bed where the victim is lying and the whispers of the two men around her. “I realized I was potentially abusing her, but it took me a while to relax.”He tried to explain in particular to Jacques C., 72 years old, who said ” naive “ ensuring that he thought “that at a given moment, Mme Pelicot would wake up.”
The day after these first images were released, Attorney General Jean-François Mayer called on Friday morning for this method to be systematic. “Without this evidence there would be no trial”The prosecutor’s representative, Jean-François Mayer, first recalled the thousands of photographs and videos recorded and meticulously archived by Dominique Pelicot, which greatly contributed to the work of the investigators.
“METROme Pelicot does not remember anything. And even if he did remember certain things, his words would have been widely discussed and questioned. That is why I would like these images to be shown to all the accused by their court, at least the most representative ones.Mr. Mayer added.
But half a dozen lawyers for the other defendants strongly objected. “The request of the Attorney General is not for his court, it is for those outside who seek to drink the blood that flows from this justice system”thundered Paul-Roger Gontard, lawyer of one of the men tried in Avignon, recalling that it was possible “making a difference thanks to video descriptions made by researchers”.
“We need to know what kind of justice we dream of in the 21st century.my century. Not the kind that happens on social media, not the kind that aims to stir blood, at the risk of clouding the mind.”added his colleague Olivier Lantelme, who is defending another co-defendant.
