After eleven weeks of hearings, the Avignon public prosecutor’s office today proposed the maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for Dominique Pelico, the man who drugged his wife, Giselleand exposed her to rape by unknown men whom she recruited from the internet and brought to their home.

The prosecution described Peliko’s actions as despicable.

Coincidentally, the reading of the prosecution proposal began on the day of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

“The indictment on this very special day is another symbol,” said Antoine Camus, one of the lawyers for the parties, this morning.

OR trial of the “rape of Mazan”, i.e. the village where the couple lived and where most of the events took place, “shaken our relations and our society” commented one of the two representatives of the prosecutor, Jean-François Mayet.

The issue, according to him, “is not condemnation or acquittal”, but “to radically change the relations between men and women”.

71-year-old Giselle Peliko refused to have the trial behind closed doors, managing to “change the side of shame”.

“Emotions are very strong,” she said entering the courtroom.

Dominique is being tried alongside 50 other men, some of whom have admitted the rape and apologized. But others deny the accusation claiming that they did not know that there was no consent of the victim, since she was drugged.