“No news this evening. Hearing tomorrow at 9 o'clock…”, Béatrice Zavarro replied in a written message, regretting “that he was not treated medically since last Wednesday”. On Saturday, she recalled that her 71-year-old client had been suffering from intestinal pain for a week and, according to her, “did not receive proper treatment.”
Dominique Pelicot appeared very weak at the hearing on Wednesday, holding on to the window of his box and also cradling his face in his hands. The president of the court then excused him, asking that he be able to receive care.
“He is not faking and he wants to express himself” at the hearing, his lawyer explained, explaining that his pain, which he had already felt during the inquest procedure two years ago, could be “psychosomatic”.
“There is great uncertainty as to whether Dominique Pelicot will be able to appear at tomorrow's hearing. Therefore, an extension of the suspension cannot be ruled out,” said one of the lawyers of the civil parties, Me Antoine Camus.
The essential presence
Another absence on Monday of Dominique Pelicot could, depending on the severity of his health condition, push the president of the court, Roger Arata, to extend the suspension for several days. Even to simply request a postponement of the trial if the conditions are not met for the speedy return of the main accused, whose presence is also essential for the examination of the case of his 50 co-defendants. On Thursday, Mr Arata formally adjourned the hearing until Monday.
Dominique Pelicot, 71, is accused of drugging his wife with anxiolytics for ten years, from July 2011 to October 2020, then raping her and having her raped by dozens of recruited men on the internet.facts he admitted. Along with him, 50 men, aged between 26 and 74, are on trial in Avignon, most of them prosecuted for aggravated rape, for which they face 20 years in criminal prison.