Gisèle Pelicot's ex-husband won't appeal his 20-year prison sentence for orchestrating mass rapes

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Gisèle Pelicot's ex-husband won't appeal his 20-year prison sentence for orchestrating mass rapes

2024-12-31 01:19 Last Updated At：01:20

PARIS (AP) — The ex-husband of Gisèle Pelicot won't appeal his 20-year prison sentence for drugging and raping her and allowing dozens of other men to rape her while she was unconscious, in a case that revolted France, his lawyer said Monday.

Dominique Pelicot wants to spare his ex-wife a “new ordeal” of another trial, lawyer Béatrice Zavarro said in an interview with broadcaster France Info.

She said 17 of the 50 other men also found guilty this month have decided to appeal their sentences after a more than three-month trial that turned 72-year-old Gisèle Pelicot into an icon against sexual violence.

The court in the southern French city of Avignon handed down sentences ranging from three to 15 years' imprisonment for the 50 men found guilty of rape, attempted rape and sexual assault on Gisèle Pelicot over nearly a decade of shocking abuse orchestrated by her then-husband and inflicted on her unwittingly.

The court found Dominique Pelicot guilty of rape and all other charges against him and sentenced him to 20 years in prison, the maximum possible. At age 72, he could spend the rest of his life behind bars. He won’t be eligible to request early release until he’s served at least two-thirds of the sentence.

Zavarro, his lawyer, said: “He believes that the judicial page should be turned and that this chapter should be considered closed."

The appeals trial is expected to be in the last third of 2025, the appeals court in the southern city of Nimes said in a statement. It confirmed that 17 of those found guilty filed appeals ahead of a Monday night deadline.

The trial spurred a national reckoning about the blight of rape culture. Dominique Pelicot laced his wife's food and drink with tranquilizers to render her unconscious. He then invited strangers he met online to take part in sordid rape and abuse fantasies that he acted out with them and filmed in the couple’s retirement home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.

Gisèle Pelicot’s courage during the bruising trial and her appalling ordeal, inflicted on the retired power company worker in what she had thought was a loving marriage, galvanized campaigners and triggered calls for tougher measures to stamp out rape culture.

She waived her right to anonymity as a survivor of sexual abuse and successfully pushed for the hearings and evidence — including her ex-husband’s homemade videos — to be heard in open court, insisting that shame should fall on her abusers, not her.

US Army veteran who killed 15 in New Orleans attack was inspired by the Islamic State group

2025-01-02 21:28 Last Updated At：21:30

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A U.S. Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans, killing 15 people, had posted videos to social media hours before the carnage saying he was inspired by the Islamic State group and expressing a desire to kill, the president said.

The FBI said it was investigating the attack as a terrorist act. In the early Wednesday attack, a driver steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot to death by police. The FBI said it does not believe the driver acted alone.

Investigators found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle — which bore the flag of the Islamic State group — along with other explosive devices elsewhere in the city’s famed French Quarter.

President Joe Biden said Wednesday evening that the FBI found the videos the driver posted to social media. He called the attack a “despicable” and “heinous act.”

The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre scene of maimed victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt. A college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome was postponed until Thursday.

Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck “barreling through, throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air.”

“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering,” said Parsons, whose friend Nikyra Dedeaux was among the people killed.

“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.

The attack is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence and the deadliest IS-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years.

The driver “defeated” safety measures in place to protect pedestrians, Kirkpatrick said, and was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”

The FBI identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, and said it was working to determine any potential associations with terrorist organizations.

“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible," FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said at a news conference.

Investigators found multiple improvised explosives, including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press.

The bulletin, relying on preliminary information gathered soon after the attack, also cited surveillance footage that it said showed three men and a woman placing one of the devices, but federal officials did not immediately confirm that detail and it wasn’t clear who they were or what connection they had to the attack, if any.

Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said. A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was being repaired in preparation for the Super Bowl in February.

Jabbar was killed by police after he exited the truck and opened fire on responding officers, Kirkpatrick said. Three officers returned fire. Two were shot and are in stable condition.

Investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle, according to a law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

There were also deadly explosions in Honolulu and outside a Las Vegas hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump. President Joe Biden said the FBI was looking into whether the Las Vegas explosion was connected to the New Orleans attack but had “nothing to report” as of Wednesday evening.

A photo circulated among law enforcement officials showed a bearded Jabbar wearing camouflage next to the truck after he was killed. The intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP said he was wearing a ballistic vest and helmet. The flag of the Islamic State group was on the truck's trailer hitch, the FBI said.

“For those people who don’t believe in objective evil, all you have to do is look at what happened in our city early this morning," U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said. "If this doesn’t trigger the gag reflex of every American, every fair-minded American, I’ll be very surprised.”

Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.

Hours after the attack, several coroner’s office vans were parked on the corner of Bourbon and Canal streets, cordoned off by police tape with crowds of dazed tourists standing around, some trying to navigate their luggage through the labyrinth of blockades.

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry urged people to avoid the area, which remained an active crime scene.

“We looked out our front door and saw caution tape and dead silence and it’s eerie,” said Tessa Cundiff, an Indiana native who moved to the French Quarter a few years ago. "This is not what we fell in love with, it’s sad.”

Nearby, life went on as normal in the city known to some for a motto that translates to “let the good times roll.” At a cafe a block from where the truck came to rest, people crowded in for breakfast as upbeat pop music played. Two blocks away, people drank at a bar, seemingly as if nothing happened.

Biden, speaking from the presidential retreat at Camp David, addressed the victims and the people of New Orleans: “I want you to know I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you as you mourn and as you heal.”

“My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” Biden said in an earlier written statement. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”

FBI officials have repeatedly warned about an elevated international terrorism threat due to the Israel-Hamas war. In the last year, the agency has disrupted other potential attacks, including in October when it arrested an Afghan man in Oklahoma for an alleged Election Day plot targeting large crowds.

Tucker reported from Washington, D.C. and Mustian reported from Black Mountain, North Carolina. Associated Press reporters Stephen Smith, Chevel Johnson and Brett Martel in New Orleans; Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Alanna Durkin Richer, Tara Copp and Zeke Miller in Washington, D.C.; Darlene Superville in New Castle, Delaware; Colleen Long in West Palm Beach, Florida; and Michael R. Sisak in New York contributed to this report.