The trial of a man who subjected his wife to multiple rapes has been adjourned to Monday, pending the return of the main defendant, Dominique Pelicot, Roger Arata, president of the Vaucluse Criminal Court in Avignon, France, announced on Thursday.
Pelicot was excused from the hearings due to illness. Should the septuagenarian be permanently unavailable, the case will be postponed, added the magistrate.
The trial began on 2 September and was scheduled to last until December.
"Either Pelicot is here (on Monday), and we continue. If he's not here for one, two or three days, we'll extend the suspension," Arata said. "But if he is permanently unavailable, the case will be adjourned."
His announcement caused confusion among lawyers for both the defence and the civil party.
"Try to figure that one out," commented Antoine Camus, one of two lawyers representing the civil parties: Gisèle Pelicot, the main victim, and the couple's three children.
If the case is to be adjourned, "everything has to be rearranged: the agenda, the availability of the courtroom, and so on. And what about those in custody? Because at that point, I can assume that there will be applications for release," said Béatrice Zavarro, attorney for Dominique Pelicot.
The 71-year-old is accused of drugging his wife with anti-anxiety medication, then raping her and having her raped by dozens of men recruited on the Internet. According to the prosecution, this went on from July 2011 to October 2020.
Alongside Pelict, 50 men aged between 26 and 74 are on trial in Avignon, most of them charged with aggravated rape, for which they face up to 20 years' imprisonment.
Eighteen of the accused, including Dominique Pelicot, are in custody. Thirty-two others are appearing free, with the last defendant, a fugitive, being tried in absentia.
