50 defendants make their final statements

Mass rape trial: 50 defendants make their final statements

One last word each. After three and a half months, on the 64^th day of the hearing, the defendants in the Pelicot rape trial had the floor one last time on Monday, December 16. These 50 men – a 51^st defendant is currently on the run – answered a final question from the judge presiding the criminal court in Avignon, Roger Arata: “Do you have anything to add in your defense?”

Usually, this exercise rarely lasts more than a minute. In this trial with its 51 defendants, it lasted an hour – hearing once more all those names, seeing again all those faces, listening again to all those voices, with which we have lived since September.

Dominique Pelicot, the first to speak, was keen to “salute the courage” of his former wife, to ask “forgiveness” from her family, to share his “regrets,” his “inner shame,” his “intention to be forgotten.” And to make one last accusation: “They said I was a liar, a manipulator. They were all liars to their own families to come to my house on the sly.”

His co-defendants were then paraded in the order in which they had appeared. For some, this was the moment to thank the court for its attentiveness, the lawyer for their support, and the bailiff for their benevolence. Two of them read out a text. One came with a file full of flying papers, keen on going over the whole trial all over again. The president gave him 10 minutes before interrupting him.

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