Avignon, Sep 17 (EFE).- Dominique Pelicot, who for almost 10 years drugged his wife and offered her to dozens of men to be raped while unconscious, appeared Tuesday in court after a week of absence due to illness, confirming that the trial will not be postponed.
Pelicot, 71, has been in prison since the case was unveiled four years ago and claimed he had been in pain since Sep. 6 and his lawyer Beatrice Zavarro has complained in recent days that he was late to be treated.
His absence initially caused a disruption to the programme, in particular the statement of the main defendant, which was due to take place on Sep. 10 and has since been postponed.
Vaucluse Criminal Court President Roger Arata canceled Friday’s and Monday’s sessions due to Pelicot’s absence. This could have led to the trial’s postponement on health grounds.
A hospital visit Sunday revealed he had a stone in his bladder and a kidney infection, but doctors who Arata asked Monday to assess his condition said he was fit to attend the hearing, but with reduced sessions.
Now the first question to be clarified in the hearing which began at 9:00 local time (7:00 GMT) is the new programme, and in particular whether Dominique Pelicot’s statement, postponed a week ago, is made.
Along with him, there are 50 other men in the dock, 49 accused of having raped their wives under the effects of tranquillisers and another, Jean-Pierre Marechal, of having reproduced the same mechanism of drugging his own wife to sexually abuse her and, in that case, for Dominique Pelicot to do it too.
The trial, which began on Sep. 2, was due to last until a few days before Christmas. EFE
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