The court in Mazan, where the case of Dominique Pelicot, the 70-year-old accused of drugging and raping his wife Giselle Pelicot or offering her drugged to other men to rape her, has been heard since September, decided today to allow journalists and the public to be present at the viewing of the videos and photographs used during the course of the trial.
The court revised the initial decision of the president of the court, Roger Arata, accepting the request of the victim’s advocates, who describe today’s decision as a “victory”.
The screening of this visual material will be followed by an announcement that will allow sensitive people and minors to leave the courtroom, the president of the court clarified, adding that this screening will not be “systematic” and will only be done when necessary to present the truth at the request of one of the two sides.
Since the start of the trial on September 2, members of the court, litigants and journalists were present in the courtroom. The public watched the proceedings via a relay in an adjacent room.
On September 20, during the third week of the trial in Avignon, the president of the court banned the viewing of the visual material to journalists and the public explaining that the images are “obscene and shocking”. From then until today, only members of the court and litigants have been allowed to see the videos and photos.
Five days later, Giselle Pelico’s lawyers asked her again lifting the ban in the name of the battle she fights against sexual violence.
Giselle Peliko was a victim of rape for a decade by her husband and dozens of men he met through the Internet. He drugged his wife with powerful anxiolytics and raped her or handed her over to have sex. She herself was against the conduct of the trial behind closed doors from the beginning. The court had also ruled in favor of an open trial until the September 20 ruling.
“For Giselle Peliko, the damage is done,” one of her lawyers, Stefan Bandono, said today. “But if these same conversations, through their publicity, can prevent other women from going through the same thing, then she will find meaning in her suffering.”
In contrast, many advocates for Pelikos’ 50 co-defendants vehemently opposed the screening of the footage in the presence of journalists and the public.
“Justice doesn’t need this to work, why should there be these emetic projections? We had one view in the first case. Isn’t one film enough?” said Olivier Landhelm, not being heard.
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