Berliner Tageblatt - Lawyers make final pleas at rape trial of France's 'monster' husband

In a trial that has shocked the country and whose verdict is expected next week, Dominique Pelicot, 72, has admitted to drugging his then wife Gisele Pelicot for almost a decade so he and strangers he recruited online could rape her.

Gisele Pelicot, 72, has become a feminist hero at home and abroad, even making it onto the BBC's 100 Women list, for refusing to be ashamed and standing up to her aggressors in court.

Alongside her now ex-husband, 50 other men aged 27 to 74 are on trial, including one who did not abuse her but instead raped his own wife with Dominique Pelicot's help.

Among the remaining 49, 36-year-old Omar D., a cleaner, and 74-year-old retiree Jean-Marc L., the oldest co-defendant, have been accused of raping Gisele Pelicot.

The prosecution has requested 12 years and 10 years in jail for them respectively.

Their lawyer Nadia El Bouroumi on Friday said she was in no way questioning Gisele Pelicot's lack of consent.

But she said her clients had been manipulated by a "monster" and asked for them to be acquitted.

"I am defending men who are what is normal in society," she said.

"It is Mr. Pelicot who is the exception, someone who is dangerous. We have a monster in the dock."

Other defence lawyers have described him as an "ogre" or a "wolf".

- 'Hard for us' -

He "used these men like objects", she said, calling them "indirect victims".

"How were they supposed to know that Mrs Pelicot had been drugged?

"A serial rapist has... a way of functioning in which they manipulate," she said, alluding to two cold cases in which Dominique Pelicot has been accused.

They are a rape and murder in Paris in 1991, which he denies, and an attempted rape in the Seine-et-Marne region in 1999, to which he has admitted after his DNA was linked to the case.

Bouroumi also stressed the difficulty of being one of the many defence lawyers in the case.

"It's really hard for us to speak because we have a civil party who is a hero and anything we say is seen as going against women," she said.

Noting that the court was under pressure from the public as well as the media, she urged the judges to "keep a cool head" and focus on the fundamental facts of the case.

Up to 166 media outlets -- 76 of them foreign -- have been accredited to cover the trial since it started in September.

- Controversial post -

On Monday, Dominique Pelicot and co-defendants will be able to speak before the court one last time before judges withdraw to decide on sentences, which are expected to be announced on Thursday.

Some have admitted to rape and apologised, while others have rejected the charges against them.

The prosecution has demanded jail terms of four to 20 years for the accused.

Lead prosecutor Laure Chabaud has asked the judges to send "a message of hope to the victims of sexual violence".

Bouroumi sparked outrage earlier during the trial when she shared on social media a video of herself sitting in her car and dancing to 1980s English pop duo Wham's "Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go" to more than 50,000 followers.

She said she and her children had been threatened throughout the trial.

E.Schubert--BTB