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Pelicot children, women's rights groups slam 'too lenient' sentences for co-defendants
FRANCE 24 English
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12/19/2024
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Transcript
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00:00
Outside the gates of the criminal court in Avignon, supporters chanted the words shame
00:06
on justice as sentences were handed out in the Pellicourt trial.
00:11
The atmosphere was tense as a lawyer for one of the condemned men in the mass rape trial
00:15
taunted the crowd and called the activist knitters and hysterical.
00:20
My client is free, my client is free.
00:23
He boasted that his client was one of the six men walking out freely, having only been
00:28
held in provisional detention.
00:31
The scene added salt to the wound for many feminist activists who said they felt humiliated
00:35
by the sentences.
00:39
What bothers me is the notion of different penalties, while they're all the same offence
00:43
under the penal code, that's rape.
00:45
And for rape our penal code says 15 years.
00:48
How is it that certain men who we recognise have committed rape can walk free after three
00:52
years?
00:56
For activists and observers, the Pellicourt trial has highlighted the need to update French
01:01
law.
01:02
In the absence of consent as a legal criterion in France, defence lawyers were able to argue
01:07
that the aggressors thought they were taking part in a consensual fantasy.
01:15
If we had in our French criminal law the obligation for the person who initiates sexual contact
01:20
to ensure they have consent free of any coercion, the accused would not even have been able
01:26
to plead a belief in consent since Mrs Pellicourt never said yes.
01:33
The country's criminal code currently defines rape as a sexual act committed by violence,
01:38
coercion, threat or surprise, but does not mention whether or not consent is necessary.
01:45
France was one of a dozen countries that opposed the EU's recent effort to establish a shared
01:50
definition of rape based on the notion of affirmative consent, namely the idea that
01:56
only yes means yes.
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