Mazan rape case: Could Dominique Pelicot be released if the trial ends on Monday ?

But everyone's attention is already elsewhere: suspended until Monday, will the trial be able to continue, or will it be stopped and postponed? President Roger Arata announced it in the morning: the condition of Dominique Pelicot, who has been ill since Monday, has worsened, with “an infection” which requires“possibly even hospitalization.”

In the event of a referral, the 18 accused detained could request their release

 The magistrate is therefore shaking up his schedule, postponing everything that was planned for next week to November, to make way for the long, highly anticipated interrogation of the main accused, following the testimony of his ex-wife Gisèle, his brothers and his daughter.

“In the event that Dominique Pelicot is not here on Monday, we are what?” asks Renaud Camus, Gisèle's lawyer. “It's a disaster” let go the president, who no longer rules out a postponement of the trial, in the event of prolonged unavailability of the accused.

“We are walking on our heads” raged the day before Me Béatrice Zavarro, recalling that her client reported that he was sick on Friday evening to the prison administration, and that she discovered him“sleeping on a concrete bench in the jails this Monday when she arrived at palace." 

A postponement of the trial would have serious human and procedural consequences: a new four-month slot would have to be found available in the jurisdiction. And the 18 accused who appear in custody, and have been incarcerated for three and a half years, would very quickly request their release. However, some are targeted by other committal warrants for other cases: this is the case of Dominique Pelicot, who has been indicted since his arrest in two investigations into cold cases and should therefore not be able to benefit from such a possible judicial crash.

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