On Monday, a 70-year-old French man was put on trial in the city of Avignon in a rape case that has shaken the whole of France. The man is accused of drugging and filming his wife being raped by over fifty foreign men whom he recruited online, in the period 2011 to 2020. During the trial in Avignon, the police counted a total of 92 rapes committed by 72 men. 51 the men have been identified. They are between 26 and 74 years old, and co-accused in the case. A court drawing shows the defendant in court in Avignon on Monday. Photo: Benoit PEYRUCQ / AFP Trial for open doors All court hearings will be public, judge Roger Arata announced on Tuesday. It fulfills the offended woman’s wish for “full publicity” throughout the entire trial, says one of her lawyers, Stéphane Babonneau, to AFP. She does not want closed doors, because that is what “her attackers would have wanted”, says her other lawyer, Antoine Camus to AFP. – My client has lived for almost fifty years with a person she thought she knew, but who has betrayed her. She is angry. She is devastated, says Camus to Franceinfo. The co-defendant talks to a lawyer in the courthouse during the trial. Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP The men who are responsible for the rapes are from “all social backgrounds”, wrote the French newspaper Le Parisien. Among the co-accused are a fireman, a bricklayer, a prison officer, a soldier and a journalist. Most of the men have admitted the facts, according to Franceinfo. A minority say they did not know the woman was on drugs, and that they thought she pretended to be asleep. The trial will last until the end of December. If the co-accused are convicted of aggravated rape, they can receive up to twenty years in prison. Drugged his wife for over nine years The abuse against the woman started in 2011, when the couple lived near Paris, and continued after they moved to Mazan, a village in Provence, two years later. According to the lawyers of the offended woman, she was so heavily sedated that she was not aware that the assault had taken place. She is said to have struggled with memory loss at times and was afraid she had Alzheimer’s. The defendant admitted to the investigators that he gave his wife powerful sedatives, including the anti-anxiety drug Temesta, writes AFP. – He admits that he did what he did, under the circumstances, and that there was no disagreement during the investigation, until the indictment, says the man’s defense lawyer Béatrice Zavarro. Lawyer Béatrice Zavarro defends the accused 70-year-old. Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP He also said that all the men who came to their home and raped his wife were aware that she was drugged. Investigated the man for four years The police started investigating the man in 2020, when he was caught filming under the skirts of women in a shopping centre. The police then found hundreds of videos and pictures of abuse material during the investigation. Some of this also included pictures and videos of other women in the accused man’s family. The police also found message logs where the man recruited strangers to come to the couple’s home to have sex with his wife. The husband participated in the rapes, filmed them and encouraged the other men to use derogatory language, according to French prosecutors. Smoke bombs and protesters outside the courtroom in Avignon. Photo: CHRISTOPHE SIMON / AFP Demonstrations to show support The coup case has caused major reactions in France. Before the trial opened on Monday, a number of women demonstrated in front of the courthouse in Avignon to show support for the victim. They carried signs with the slogans “Stop rape culture”, “Rape man, I see you” and “Rape = inhuman crime”. Published 02.09.2024, at 16.29
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Man indicted for drugging his wife and filming rapes – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
