MARSEILLE: The Frenchman convicted of drugging and raping his then-wife and soliciting dozens of males to do the identical for greater than a decade won’t enchantment his verdict, his lawyer mentioned Monday (Dec 30).
Dominique Pelicot was convicted and jailed for 20 years earlier this month after a trial that horrified France and past, whereas 50 co-defendants have been additionally convicted and handed varied sentences of between three and 15 years.
Gisele Pelicot was hailed as a hero for her braveness and dignity all through the three-month trial.
“Dominique Pelicot has taken the choice to not enchantment the decision,” lawyer Beatrice Zavarro informed AFP and Franceinfo.
An enchantment “would power Gisele (Pelicot) to endure a brand new ordeal, new confrontations, which Dominique Pelicot refuses” to do, Zavarro mentioned, including that “it’s time to end judicially”.
Monday is the final day for the defendants to file appeals, and 17 of Pelicot’s co-defendants have already completed so, in response to Zavarro.
Following the responsible verdicts on the finish of December, one in every of Gisele Pelicot’s legal professionals mentioned she had no worry of a brand new trial.
“If it have been to occur, she has already indicated to us that she would face it – if she is wholesome, clearly, since she is a woman who’s now 72,” Stephane Babonneau informed France Inter radio.
“In any case, she has no worry of it, that’s what she informed us.”
Gisele Pelicot has been praised for refusing to waive her proper to a closed trial, saying she wished to show the tables on the disgrace related to rape from victims to perpetrators.
