The long-awaited interrogation has begun. Dominique Pelicot, the main accused, absent for a week for health reasons, arrived in the dock on Tuesday, September 17, before the criminal court of Vaucluse. Questioned by the president, he admitted “the totality of the facts”The 71-year-old retiree is accused of drugging his wife Gisèle Pelicot to rape her and have her raped by dozens of men. His interrogation will take place in “special adaptation conditions, namely a sequencing of auditions and regular rest time”his lawyer Béatrice Zavarro told AFP. Follow our live coverage.
A double assessment carried out on Monday at midday. On Monday morning, Dominique Pelicot did not appear at the hearing, “referring to health issues”reported the president of the criminal court of Vaucluse, Roger Arata. He had undergone a scan on Sunday, “and he was diagnosed with a kidney stone, a bladder infection and also a prostate problem.”detailed the magistrate.
Criticism of the treatment of the main accused. Béatrice Zavarro has been denouncing all weekend the prison administration’s failures in monitoring her client’s health. Angry, at the hearing on Monday morning, she spoke of a “lamentable support”believing that he should have been hospitalized at the first signs of infection, which date back to the weekend of September 7-8.
Will Dominique Pelicot speak for the first time? The pensioner, who documented all the rapes committed against his wife in files filed on his computer, admitted the facts but has never explained himself. His testimony is also crucial for the other men, aged 26 to 74, also on trial in Avignon. Many of them claim to have thought they were coming to take part in a “libertine game” wanted by the couple.