The long-awaited verdict in the Mazan case, which pitted a woman against more than fifty defendants, including her husband, who drugged and raped her over a ten-year period, fell on Thursday, December 19th. While the main defendant received the maximum sentence, feminist associations are critical of the relatively lenient sentences handed down to the other men involved in the rapes.
This shocking case reached its conclusion on Thursday at the Avignon court. For ten years, Gisèle Pélicot was drugged by her husband and handed over to strangers who raped her in the marital home while her husband filmed them. The police were able to establish the existence of 92 rapes, committed by at least 73 different men. 51 have been identified and were awaiting the verdict in the trial, including Dominique Pélicot, the victim’s husband.
Dominique Pélicot, aged 72, was sentenced to the maximum penalty, 20 years imprisonment for “aggravated rape,” two-thirds of which is to be served in prison. However, for the other defendants, the sentences were generally lower than those requested. While none of the 51 co-defendants, men aged between 27 and 74, were acquitted, the court handed down sentences ranging from three years (with two suspended) to 15 years in prison to them.
The feminist associations present around the courthouse voiced their disapproval loudly when the verdict was announced. The court chose to make a clear distinction between the husband who instigated the whole affair, Dominique Pélicot, and the others who responded to his solicitations and raped the unconscious woman.
In addition to Dominique Pélicot, 40 men are now in custody. Three are placed under deferred committal orders—meaning the decision about their placement is delayed until a later time—and six have been released, having already served their sentences or being allowed to serve them in a different form. The lowest sentence was given to a certain Joseph C., aged 69, sentenced to three years in prison with two suspended. The heaviest sentence, apart from Pélicot’s, is one of 15 years imprisonment and was handed down to Romain V., aged 63, who came to Mazan no less than six times to rape Mrs Pélicot.
“I’m disgusted. When is justice going to be done? Do you really expect women to take the law into their own hands?” said Blandine Deverlanges, founder of Les Amazones d’Avignon, who had come to support Gisèle Pélicot.
Many feminist associations had taken up Gisèle Pélicot’s cause, seeing the trial as an opportunity to bring ‘patriarchy’ and ‘toxic masculinity’ to justice. The court judged that matters were more complex, in particular because of the very large number of defendants and the variety of backgrounds. Those same associations have not been very keen on defending other lenient judgments in the last years—like, for example, the magistrate who online offered his own 13-year-old daughter for rape and was sentenced only to suspended imprisonment—showing their political commitment rather than their care for justice.
The trial aroused great emotion in France and internationally. Many observers saw it as a symbol of the fight against sexual violence and the need to rethink relations between men and women. But the general context of sexual liberation, and the omnipresence of pornography and moral corruption, which alone explains the proliferation of so much deviant behaviour, was generally ignored.
The victim welcomed the verdict in a very sober statement. She said she “respected the verdict” of the court and had “confidence in the future.”
The defendants now have ten days to appeal the court’s decision if they so wish. For the moment, the number of people likely to appeal is not known.
