Dominique Pelicot, the 72-year-old man who drugged and raped his wife Gisèle and recruited dozens of men to rape her over a decade, will not appeal his 20-year prison sentence, his lawyer Béatrice Zavarro said.
However, 17 of the 49 men convicted of raping or sexually assaulting Ms Pelicot at Dominique’s behest said they would appeal.
More could follow before the deadline for appeals closes at midnight on December 30.
Ms Zavarro told French media that Dominique Pelicot – who pleaded guilty – chose not to appeal because she did not want to impose “new ordeal” on Ms Pelicot, who was in court for the vast majority of the 15-week trial. .
“He felt that this decision was consistent with the position he had always taken at the trial, namely that Ms. Pelicot was not and had never been his adversary,” Ms. Zavarro said, adding that Dominique Pelicot wanted to “finish” the case.
He will have to be present in court as a witness during the appeal trial.
Although Ms Pelicot is under no obligation to attend the proceedings, her lawyer Stéphane Babonneau told French media that she “will face those who complained. She is not afraid of that, although she would obviously prefer it to end here”.
Under French law, a new trial will have to take place within the next 12 months. However, unlike the first trial, there will be three judges and a jury composed of nine citizens.
While this will not necessarily result in harsher sentences, the trial’s high profile and media coverage may mean that juries end up being less lenient than judges.
Although they will be scrutinized, “jurors are people like you and me and they may have prejudices,” lawyer Hansu Yalaz told the BBC.
Among the men who complained was Charly Arbo, now 30, who was jailed for 13 years for raping Ms Pelicot on six separate occasions when he was in his early 20s.
Construction worker Simoné Mekenese (43) and nurse Redouane El Farihi (55), who were sentenced to nine and eight years respectively, also appealed.
Many men claimed that Pelicot “manipulated” them into raping his wife and that they were unaware that she had not given her consent.
“From the beginning, my client said that … he never intended to rape Gisele Pelicot,” Mekenese’s lawyer Yannick Prat said, adding that the nine-year prison sentence was “disproportionate.”
He acknowledged that the prospect of facing a popular jury could result in a higher sentence, but said he would be “absolutely happy” to work with the jurors.
“I will ask them to put themselves in the shoes of each party in this process,” he said.
Lawyer Louis-Alain Lemaire said one of his clients, who was sentenced to eight years in prison, was appealing the conviction because “there was no criminal intent on his part.”
But other lawyers believe an appeal would be a risky gamble.
On the day the verdicts were handed down, lawyer Patrick Gontard told the BBC that while appeals are usually made in the hope of shaving a few years off a prison sentence, all the men – including his client – had already received lighter sentences than the prosecutor had asked .
Dominique Pelicot – who his daughter Caroline once called “one of the worst sexual predators of the last 20 years” – drugged, raped and encouraged others to rape his wife Gisèle for at least a decade.
He filmed many of the rapes, which allowed investigators to track down dozens of men. Fifty of them were eventually arrested, but about 20 people have never been identified and are believed to be still at large.
The court found 47 men guilty of rape, two guilty of attempted rape and two guilty of sexual assault.
The six men were allowed to walk free from court, in most cases because of the time they had already spent in pretrial detention.
The trial – which lasted from September to December – attracted worldwide attention thanks to Gisèle Pelicot’s decision to renounce anonymity and open the trial to the public and the media.
She said she did it to help other rape victims: “I want them to say: If Madame Pelicot did it, so can I.”
“Rape victims are often ashamed, but it’s not up to us to be ashamed. It’s up to them,” she said.
