The eleventh week of debates opens on Monday at the Mazan rape trialwhere the last four of the 51 men accused of rape will be given the floor. Gisèle Pelicotthen unconscious, drugged by her husband Dominique Pelicot.

Nicolas F., a 43-year-old freelance journalist, Boris M., a 37-year-old transport company employee, Philippe L., a 62-year-old gardener, and Joseph C., a 69-year-old pensioner, will be the last to take the stand before the Vaucluse criminal court in Avignon, to explain their visits to the Pelicot couple’s home.

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Did they know, as Dominique Pelicot has always maintained, that Gisèle Pelicot was unconscious, knocked out with anxiolytics, and that they were therefore committing aggravated rape? Facts punishable by 20 years’ rigorous imprisonment. Or will they maintain, like most of the co-defendants, that they believed in the scenario of a libertine couple, in which the wife pretended to be asleep?

Like most of the defendants, they will no doubt be confronted with videos of their actions, filmed and meticulously captioned and stored by the husband, until his final arrest in November 2020.

The Pelicot couple’s sons to speak out

After the examination of the files of these last four defendants, the floor will then be given to the Pelicot couple’s two sons, the only members of the family not yet to have spoken. One of their lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau, told AFP on Sunday that these hearings will take place on Monday afternoon or Tuesday at the earliest.

Their sister Caroline had already been heard in the first week of the trial, as had the two sisters-in-law, Céline and Aurore, respectively wife and now ex-wife of David and Florian. Nude images and photomontages of the three women, taken without their knowledge, had been published by Dominique Pelicot on social networks. Once the hearings of David and Florian are over, the court and its president Roger Arata may give Dominique and Gisèle Pelicot one last opportunity to speak.

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Wednesday will see the start of the closing arguments, which will begin, as is the rule, with those of the civil parties’ lawyers, i.e. Gisèle Pelicot, her three children, her two daughters-in-law and some of the grandchildren. Then it’s the turn of the two representatives of the public prosecutor’s office to deliver their closing arguments, scheduled over two days in the initial timetable, normally Thursday and Friday.

From November 25 onwards, the lawyers for the 51 defendants will have the floor for three weeks, with Dominique Pelicot’s counsel, Béatrice Zavarro, making her final contribution. The court’s five professional judges will then have a week to deliberate, with a verdict expected by December 20 at the latest.