Dominique Pelicot will not appeal 20-year rape sentence

RFI

30 December 2024 at 5:18 am·1-min read

Gisele Pelicot leaving the courthouse after hearing the guilty verdicts for her ex-husband and 50 co-defendants, 19 December 2024.

The French man who was convicted of drugging and raping his then wife, Gisele Pelicot, and soliciting dozens strangers to do the same, will not appeal the verdict and 20-year prison sentence, his lawyers said Monday.

An appeal "would force Gisele to undergo a new ordeal, new confrontations, which Dominique Pelicot refuses," to do, his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro told the AFP news agency and Franceinfo. adding that "it is time to finish judicially".

Monday is the last day for the defendants to file appeals, and 17 of Pelicot's 50 co-defendants have done so, according Zavarro.

Gisele Pelicot, who was lauded for her courage and dignity throughout the three-month trial, has indicated she is not afraid of a new trial.

"She has no fear of it, that is what she told us,” one of her lawyers, Stephane Babonneau told France Inter radio following the guilty verdicts.

"If it were to happen, she has already indicated to us that she would face it.”

(with AFP)

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