General
Friday Briefing
The rape trial that horrified France.
Gisèle Pelicot leaving the courthouse in Avignon, France, yesterday.Credit…Lewis Joly/Associated Press
51 guilty verdicts, and a message of hope
In a packed courtroom in Avignon, France, all 51 of the men accused of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was unconscious were found guilty yesterday. The trial has convulsed France and transformed the woman at its center into a feminist icon for her bravery in allowing the case to be tried publicly.
Her husband, Dominique Pelicot, 72, who admitted to drugging her for years, was the only defendant to get the maximum sentence: 20 years. The rest were given prison terms that mostly ranged from six to nine years. See details of the sentencing.
After it was over, Gisèle Pelicot stepped outside the courthouse, where hundreds of her supporters cheered and held up signs of appreciation. She said she had never regretted her decision to make the trial public. “I am now confident in our ability to seize a future in which women and men can live in harmony, respect and mutual understanding,” she said.
Catch up: Here is a timeline of events in the case, starting with the Pelicots’ marriage in 1973 and leading up to the arrests of 2020 and 2021.
Analysis: Gisèle Pelicot’s image has become a symbol of female strength around the world, our chief fashion critic writes.
From Opinion: The trialopened upan overdue conversation about sexual violence in a country where the response to the #MeToo movement was decidedly mixed, Megan Clement writes from Paris.
