French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to Gisèle Pelicot’s struggle on Friday, a day after the conclusion of a landmark mass rape trial in Avignon in which her ex-husband was found guilty of aggravated rape and sentenced to 20 years in prison.
“Thank you Gisèle Pelicot,” Macron wrote on platform X. “In the name of justice you went to the trial with your head held high.”
The president added: “For women, who will always have a pioneer to talk to and fight for. For all of us, because your dignity and your courage have moved and inspired France and the world.”
Dominique Pelicot repeatedly drugged, abused and offered his then-wife to dozens of strangers to rape while she was heavily sedated for nearly a decade.
A court in Avignon convicted him and his fifty co-defendants on Thursday. The co-suspects received prison sentences ranging from three to fifteen years.
A handful of convicts will be released because they have already served their time in custody.
Investigators suspect there are a dozen other perpetrators who have not yet been identified.
After the sentencing, Gisèle Pelicot expressed hope that her ordeal and its outcome will change society.
Gisèle Pelicot believes she has suffered about 200 rapes.
The trial, ongoing since September, has shocked France and the world and reignited the debate over criminal law on sexual violence.
Gisele Pelicot (C) arrives at the courthouse in Avignon, where the verdict is expected in the trial of her ex-husband Dominique Pellicot and fifty other defendants accused of drugging her and committing several rapes over the past almost ten years orchestrated. Dominique Pelicot has been found guilty of aggravated rape of his ex-wife in a trial that has shocked France and the world. Clement Mahoudeau/AFP/dpa
