Seventeen men convicted in the Pelicot mass rape trial have appealed the verdict, according to the prosecutor\u2019s office in the French city of Avignon. <\/p>\n
All 51 men on trial were found guilty of rape or sexual assault when the trial concluded <\/strong>earlier this month. <\/p>\n Pelicot organized <\/strong>for more than 50 men to visit his house in the southern French village of Mazan and rape his then-wife Gis\u00e8le Pelicot \u2013 who he habitually drugged with a sedative \u2013 over a period spanning nearly 10 years. <\/p>\n The monthslong, landmark trial shocked France and international observers and forced the country to confront a culture where pervasive misogyny and systemic sexual assault remain rife. <\/p>\n Monday marks the last day that the 51 defendants can file appeals, according to the prosecutor\u2019s office. <\/p>\n Pelicot, who received a 20-year sentence \u2013 the maximum sentence allowed in France for aggravated rape \u2013 will not be appealing the verdict, his lawyer B\u00e9atrice Zavarro said Monday. <\/p>\n Speaking to French media, Zavarro said that her client felt an appeal would \u201csubject (Gisele) to what she rightly called \u2018an ordeal.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cToday he considers that the judicial page must be turned and that we must consider this chapter closed,\u201d Zavarro added. <\/p>\n Fourteen of Pelicot\u2019s co-defendants, as well as Pelicot himself, pleaded guilty to rape at the trial. Others denied the charges against them and said they thought that a husband\u2019s consent sufficed. One of those on trial was convicted of the attempted and aggravated rape of his own wife, rather than Gis\u00e8le, having copied Pelicot\u2019s methods. <\/p>\n The men were handed sentences of between three and 15 years, with many of them receiving shorter sentences than prosecutors sought \u2013 including a few who walked free with suspended sentences after the verdict on December 19. <\/p>\n Gis\u00e8le Pelicot has been praised for her courage throughout the case. She waived her anonymity to make the trial public, saying that she hoped it would help other women speak up and show other victims of sexual assault and rape that they have nothing to be ashamed of. <\/p>\n Speaking at the trial\u2019s conclusion outside the courtoom in Avignon, she underscored her solidarity with other sexual assault survivors. <\/p>\n \u201cI am thinking of all the unrecognized victims of stories, which often unfold in the shadows. I want you to know we share the same fight,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Towards the beginning of the trial, Gis\u00e8le Pelicot questioned her rapists\u2019 actions. <\/p>\n \u201cRape is rape,\u201d she said in court in November. \u201cWhen you walk into a bedroom and see a motionless body, at what point (do you decide) not to react\u2026 why did you not leave immediately to report it to the police?\u201d <\/p>\n<\/p>\n Seventeen men convicted in the Pelicot mass rape trial have appealed the verdict, according to the prosecutor\u2019s office in the French city of Avignon. All 51 men on trial were found guilty of rape or sexual assault when the trial concluded earlier this month. Pelicot organized for more than 50 men to visit his house […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7025,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7024\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7025"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}