the press and the public authorized to attend the broadcast of the videos at the hearing

When the hearing resumed, at the beginning of the afternoon, the parties announced the videos they wished to broadcast during the debates, with supporting reasons.

The court reversed its decision. The videos and photos broadcast during the debates at the Mazan rape trial will now be broadcast in the presence of the press and the public, announced Friday, October 4, the president of the Vaucluse criminal court, Roger Arata, after a long debate. The broadcast of these images will however be preceded by a “announcement allowing sensitive people and minors to leave the room”, said the magistrate.

In addition, they will only be disseminated in cases “strictly necessary for the manifestation of the truth”at the request of one of the parties, he continued. Thus, when the hearing resumes,The parties were invited to say “what videos they want to see broadcast”declared the president, adding that he “must provide a reason which can enable us to assess the usefulness of this dissemination”.

On September 20, the president first banned the broadcast of the images to the public and the press. “Considering that these images are indecent and shocking, this will be done in the presence of only the parties to the trial and the court,” he had decided. Five days later, Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers again called for the lifting of these restrictions, in the name of the fight she is now waging against sexual violence.

Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyers described “victory” the new decision of the presidency. The ex-husband of this 72-year-old woman, Dominique Pelicot, is on trial for having drugged, then raped and had his wife raped by dozens of men, 50 of whom appear alongside him. The images and videos of these acts constitute essential pieces of this file, while “the vast majority of the accused in this room plead a line of defense which is that of perception: the perception that they did not have of committing rape on the day of the events“, noted one of the victim’s lawyers.

“Even an accused himself said yesterday: ‘my word is worthless, it’s time we watch these videos’. And how can we say: ‘once we have seen one, we seen them all?'”, questioned Antoine Camus, one of Gisèle Pelicot’s counsel, in reference to certain comments made by the defense.

“It is only when viewed in their mass, and only in their mass, that we will measure the contribution of each one on their small scale to this monstrosity which lasted ten years for Gisèle Pelicot. To this banality of evil, this banality rape.”

Antoine Camus, lawyer for Gisèle Pelicot

at the hearing

Several lawyers for the 50 co-defendants, however, fiercely opposed the presence of the public and the press during the broadcast of the videos. “Justice doesn’t need that to pass, what’s the point of these nauseating screenings? We were treated to a screening on a first case. Wasn’t a film enough?”argued Olivier Lantelme. “You want to show everything to everyone, without limits, to satisfy what? At what price?” he again asked for the attention of the civil party. “We are in a situation of media dictatorship!”launched lawyer Nadia El Bouroumi, announcing threats aimed at the accused as well as their advice.