Some of the men on trial in Avignon admit to having sexual relations. But they claim not to have known that the victim did not consent, while her ex-husband admitted to having drugged her without her knowledge.
A moment of tension that outlines, in the background, a defense strategy. On the seventh day of the Mazan rape trial, where 51 men are accused, before the Vaucluse departmental criminal court, the words of a defense lawyer were hard to get through. “There is rape and rape and, swithout the intention to commit it, there is no rape”Guillaume de Palma said on Tuesday, September 10, provoking the anger of the civil parties.
“Today, it is not a question of defining a new aspect of rape that the law has not provided for”denounced on BFMTV, without hesitating to put his colleague in a difficult position, Béatrice Zavarro, the lawyer of Dominique Pelicot, the man accused of drugging his now ex-wife, to rape her and have her raped by dozens of strangers recruited on the internet. “The sentence itself, in addition to being extremely shocking for the victims, is a legal aberration”explained to franceinfo Audrey Darsonville, professor of criminal law at the University of Paris Nanterre. “Let them be facts are proven, or the offence does not exist, there are not two categories of rape”, hammers home the lawyer specializing in sexual violence.
The departure of Guillaume de Palma also illustrates one of the main axes of the defense of the 35 men accused of being recruited by Dominique Pelicot on the internet. While they admit to the sexual acts, they deny rape in this trial. “From the moment that there is indeed a guilty intention, from the moment that we can provide proof that the person who committed the acts was aware of committing acts of rape, there is rape. Otherwise, there is no rape.”the lawyer told journalists as he left the hearing on Tuesday evening. Several defendants claim to have gone to the couple’s home to getfilmed sex ethinking that Gisèle Pelicot was pretending to sleep, because she was participating in a “libertine scenario”.
Goldaccording to the Penal Code, “there is no crime or offence without the intention to commit it”, with certain exceptions, including involuntary manslaughter. In the case of rape, the intention lies in the perpetrator’s desire to commit the act of penetration, but also in the latter’s awareness that this act is being imposed on the victim. It is this second aspect that some of those accused in the Mazan rape trial are contesting, through their lawyers. A defense strategy “far from being absurd”, according to Audrey Darsonvillebut “which reveals a flaw in the definition of lack of consent in law”deplores the professor of criminal law.
This observation is shared by Maria Cornaz Bassoli, national secretary of the association Choosing the Cause of Women, fwaved by lawyer Gisèle Halimi. The lawyer deplores current definition of rape in law “too restrictive”, and not “not taking into account the phenomenon of shock”. Currently, the Penal Code considers rape to be: “any act of sexual penetration, of whatever nature, or any oral-genital act committed on the person of another or on the person of the perpetrator by violence, constraint, threat or surprise”. Without mentioning the existence or not of consent. In the Mazan rape case, Gisèle Pelicot’s falling asleep at the time of the events, triggered by chemical submission, falls into the category of rape by “surprise”, according to the experts contacted by franceinfo.
“This lawyer agrees with us that we need to change the law and that the issue of consent needs to be written in black and white in the Penal Code, that it needs to be defined in the Penal Code.”reacted the resigning Minister for Equality between Women and Men, Aurore Bergé, on RTL Thursday morning. On March 8, Emmanuel Macron had informed the association Choosing the cause of women his intention to include in French law the notion of consent in matters of rape. A change that has become uncertain since the dissolution of the National Assembly, which put an end to the ongoing parliamentary work, at the beginning of June.
The measure is “urgent”underlines Maria Cornaz Bassoli. “The inclusion of the notion of consent would make it possible to impose on individuals the obligation to inquire about the consent of their partner”argues the lawyer, according to whom “the notion of intention to commit rape would then be understood completely differently.”
“Do we want to live in a society where men can say, ‘Oops, I raped by mistake’?”
Maria Cornaz Bassoli, national secretary of the association Choosing the Cause of Womento franceinfo
This position, defended by many feminist associations, does not convince Julia Courvoisier, a lawyer at the Paris bar. She believes that the introduction of the notion of consent into law “would come back to shift the debate entirely onto the complainant and reverse the burden of proof.”
For the lawyer, theThe defense’s strategy of contesting the intentionality of the Mazan rapes is thus part of “in a normal judicial process”. “There are three ways to defend yourself when accused of rape: say there was no relationship, admit the facts, or claim there was no intention to rape”she unrolls.“Qthat the defense’s statements offend the civil parties, this is the lot of all trials, continues Julia Courvoisier. That there are twisted, violent, absurd explanations is also normal: everyone has the right to defend themselves as they wish.”
“There are things that will continue to be disturbing in the coming weeks.”she predicted, but “we cannot avoid a legal debate, which absolutely must take place.” Lthe trial of husband of Gisèle Pelicot and the 50 others Men accused of raping her must stand trial before the Vaucluse departmental criminal court until December 20.