Laura Gozzi
Report from Avignon

In France, the trial is known as Mazan affairnamed after the village near Avignon where the Pélicots lived.

In November 2020, Dominique Pelicot admitted to drugging his then-wife for nearly a decade and recruiting dozens of men online to rape her in their home while she was unconscious.

Police tracked down his co-accused through thousands of videos found on his laptop, but were unable to identify 21 other men. Investigators said they have evidence of around 200 rapes committed between 2011 and 2020.

The majority of defendants deny the rape accusations, arguing that they cannot be guilty because they did not know that Gisèle Pelicot was unconscious and therefore did not “know” that they were raping her.

This line of defense has sparked a national debate over whether consent should be added to the legal definition of rape in France, currently defined as “any act of sexual penetration committed against another by violence, coercion, threat or surprise.”

The trial also highlighted the issue of chemical submission – drug-induced sexual assault.