France – Giselle Peliko’s final statement: This is a coward’s trial, I could have died.

In the final line comes the trial of Giselle Peliko’s massives, by Dominique’s husband and dozens of strangers for a period of nearly 10 years inside their home in Mazan village in . The decision is expected on 20 December. In her last statement, which began shortly after 10 a.m., France time, Giselle Pelico, the woman who with her story shocked France and the planet, said society should seriously consider the way in which rape crime demeans. She started her testimony saying: “I knew what I was signing when I resigned from the right to a closed-door trial… I confess that today I feel tired,” expressing her mental exhaustion. Giselle Peliko described this process as “the trial of cowardice” and stressed that she has not much to add, except to repeat the need for a social review of the treatment of rape. Defender two of the 50 defendants, Nadia El Bouroumi, points out to Giselle Peliko that she used “hard words” against the other defendants, but not against her husband, Dominique. Giselle, in response, says she feels “treasoned” by her husband and adds that Dominique “identified what she did and never denied it”. In a defense attorney’s question about her emotional response to the trial, she says: “Looking at you – and I’m sorry to say that – I wondered if we would ever see you cry. The only time you cried was when we were talking about how miserable Mr Peliko’s childhood was,” the advocate says. “I know what she lived… I was very close to my mother-in-law and I know everything,” Giselle replied. When Peliko is asked by the defense lawyers if looking back can “see the signs” that something was wrong, for example, how she felt in the morning after the sedation, she says she didn’t. “I woke up with my usual pajamas, so no. We had breakfast, we went for walks, I had a normal life,” he describes. He was then asked about some defendants who say they were manipulated to carry out rapes. Peliko points out that in the videos her snoring is heard: “I think you understand early on that something is wrong”! “I lost 10 years of my life and I will never take them back” stresses in her new and final testimony Giselle Pelico in Avignon Court in France. “I am 72 years old now and I don’t know how much time I have left,” he continues. Giselle says that the years she thought she was sick were “like a death sentence”. “I thought I was either going to die or end up in a mental hospital,” he said. “I could have died” A defense lawyer tells Giselle: “You seem to show more anger towards the defendants than to Mr Pelikos … but they ended up in your bed because of him”. They ask her if she feels that her ex-husband is sincere with her answering: “In view of what he said here, yes, I feel he was sincere. And I feel angry at the defendants because they didn’t even address the police for a second. If this kept going, I could have died. They could have that on their conscience… They could have all reported it. Nobody did.” “Everyone came to rape me and all committed a crime” answers the question if there is a difference between those who admitted to rape and those who did not admit him. However, he says he can look at those who admitted it “in the eyes”. Giselle then admits that she will never feel peace until the end of her life. “I will learn to live with it. I’ll rebuild myself. But there will always be 51 people who have raped me. And I should live with it for the rest of my life,” she says. “I don’t forgive my husband” “Do you think your husband could be a sexual predator?” Giselle Pelico was then asked after a minor break in the trial. “Of course, of course”. “But by the way, I want to point out that I don’t forgive him. His actions were unforgivable. He betrayed and tricked me.” He adds that “he could not imagine for a second that he was capable of chemical submission… my friends, my family saw nothing. I lived with a good man.” Defender De Palma provoked reactions earlier in the trial when he said that “rape is not always rape” and argued that “without the intention of committing rape, there is no rape.”