Gisèle Pelicot returns to court after trial made her an icon

The first day of Gisèle Pelicot walked the steps of the Courthouse Building in Avignon in September 2024, an anonymous retired grandmother.

During weeks, this shrinkage 72 -year -old – the sacrifice at the center of the biggest rape trial in French history had become a feminist icon with 51 men, including her husband.

Finally, when all guilty decisions were delivered in December, the public was seen. Until then, the supporter crowds were chanting the name.

On Monday, Gisèle Pelicot returns to court in Nîmes, for challenging only one of the 51 defendants: 44 -year -old Husamettin Dogan is a married father.

Between September and December last year, Gisèle’s gloomy story toured the world. For more than a decade, he was unconsciously numbed by his husband Dominique, and he was raped by dozens of men he hired in the internet chat rooms.

Dominique Pelicot filmed the attacks and catalized them properly on a hard drive, which allowed researchers to watch most of the relevant individuals. Approximately 20 of them could not be defined and remained big.

After a 16 -week hearing, two of 46 men were found guilty of rape attempt and two sexual assault. Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to a maximum of 20 years in prison.

Husmettin Dogan’s appeal next week will actually be a renovation. The videos of Gisèle’s rape will be shown again in court and Pelicot will be available – this time as a witness.

Although not compulsory, Gisèle will also participate in the proceedings.

One of his lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau, “Everyone had not come, because he was trying to continue a normal life because he’s trying to continue a normal life.” He said. “But he thinks it should be there, and he’s responsible for being there until the end of the proceedings.”

In December, Dogan was found guilty of aggravated rape and was sentenced to nine years in prison. Postponed custody ordered for health reasons and is currently not in prison. It is reported that both the guilty decision and the length of his sentence appeal.

As for many of the other 51 men, Dogan’s defense was due to the claim that he could not be guilty of raping Gisèle because he did not realize that he would be unconscious. Pelicot rejected this argument and said that his wife would be numbed to men he hired online.

Dogan told the court last year, Pelicot’a his wife “appeared dead,” he said. Still, he returned properly to him. Orum I don’t agree to be labeled as a rapist, dedi he protested. “A very heavy burden for transport.”

Although the other 16 defendants initially applied for appeal, Dogan was the only one who progressed with him.

Contrary to the first hearing, Dogan’s appeal will be evaluated by a jury consisting of members of nine people who will decide both the conviction and the length of imprisonment.

If he loses his objection, the great resonance of the hearing and the scope of the media may mean that the jury was less soft than judges last December.

“This is a real risk, and I think so many men withdrew his objections,” French Magali Magali said. He said.

The Pelicote believes that the case has a significant impact on the French society and that the jury members have a new understanding of social issues related to rape and consent.

“It will be interesting to see what the defendant has emerged.” “Feminism may try to show that he has learned the lessons or that there is no risk for the society. Many will depend on the quality of his defense – and his lawyers know how much society has developed this year.”

This time, the only four -day transactions will be warrior.

Last year, Dogan’s lawyer Sylvie Menvielle implied that rape videos showed a “three -way sex game” and could be Gisèle’s criminal partner.

The comments caused an angry Gisèle to leave the courtroom for the second time at the hearing, and this was expected to do it again next week, otherwise he followed himself.

Although he addressed the court only several times last year, when he did it, Gisèle said he spoke to help other rape victims: “If Madame Pelicot does this, I can do it.”

Shame, the victim should change the sides to the perpetrator, he insisted. This reasoning was at the center of the decision to force the hearing to renounce his anonymity, to open the hearing to the media and to the public, and to force the videos of his rapes in court.

This was a very important decision and the reason why the hearing gained resonance worldwide. Since the decisions were delivered, Gisèle Pelicot Time has chosen one of the 100 most influential people. In addition, many awards were given, including the French Legion D’Honneur, and a personal letter was sent by Queen Camilla.

In general, however, after the months in the eyes of the people, Gisèle was able to reclaim the privacy that he had been rejected for a long time. Shortly after the end of the hearing, he retreated to Ré, a small island on the Atlantic coast of France.

The only image that had to emerge for a while was occasional selfies showing that he was sitting on the social media by his son Florian, sitting at the seaside and teleporting the camera.

This confidentiality did not last. Last spring, the bright magazine Paris Match published his and his new partner’s paparazzi paintings circulating in Ré.

Many said that there was another personal image example that was taken and shared without consent. The legal team went to court, arguing that Gisèle’s decision to renounce anonymity during the hearing period did not mean giving up a private life right.

Lawyer Antoine Camus, “despite him to become a public figure is a victim of rape,” he said. (At the end of the case, Paris Match was solved when he agreed to donate for two associations supporting victims of sexual violence.)

Gisèle Pelicot’s visibility has not been the only change since last year.

When the trials started in September 2024, three adult children – Caroline, David and Florian were supported. Now, the strict family unit that entered the Avignon court last September is no longer.

David Pelicot and Caroline Darian called themselves “forgotten victims” of the hearing, and next week, in Nîmes, Gisèle will only be the youngest of her children, Florian.

Divided in the center of the family, last November, Gisèle’nin Pelicot’s computer about the photos of his half -naked girls Caroline’i showing, apparently asleep and not familiar with a moment of wearing a moment.

Caroline Darian insisted that the photographs proved that his father had also anestly and attacked him – and in March he made charges against him. He always rejected that he had sexually harassed his daughter.

Caroline remembered how Gisèle refused to deal with incest charges against her husband. “And as if the ground was opened under my feet. The silence spoke the volumes. It was a return point.”

“I was his only daughter, especially then, he shouldn’t have left my hand,” Mrs. Darian wrote. His mother was devastated by what they saw as “rejection” and left the courtroom.

Since then, Mrs. Darian-Gisèle, who has been “chemical surrender” (sexual assault) against a war against a war against Darian-Gisèle, no longer speaks and was not expected to attend the hearing of the next week.

His brother David, who is vocal with his support, will stay away.

19 -year -old son Nathan, after the hearing triggered childhood memories, he made accusations against Dominique Pelicot. When the charges were rejected due to lack of evidence earlier this year, Caroline said it was “angry and disgust.”

“As if they said: You have pain, but… Unrecognized, will never end.”

For him, other victims who could not offer the evidence of Nathan and Gisèle, Caroline, “Justice, not compensation,” he wrote.

Last year’s hearing echoed far beyond the courtroom in Avignon, and led to urgent conversations on rape, consent and gender violence throughout the country, and Dominique Pelicot’s crimes fluctuated through the family.

The images taken on the opening day of the hearing in September 2024 emphasize seismic changes that swallow pelicotes in the last 13 months.

The Avignon Courthouse Hall shows how Gisèle and his family are empty as they first enter. Within a few days, he would become a center of activists, journalists and people of the people who would once again gathered at the new court hearing in Nîmes.

One of the photographs shows how close the Pelicot family is: Sitting on a small bench in court came together, and waited for the trials to start.

Under the protective embrace of his brothers, Caroline leans forward and kisses Gisèle on the cheek.