This rape trial which has modified the legislation in France | EUROtoday

Lhe trial of the Mazan rape, which ended on December 19, 2024, is added to the record of historic trials which marked the corporate. If as we speak, in France, a girl like Gisèle Pelicot is acclaimed when he leaves the court docket whereas her attackers disguise behind hoods and black glasses, there was a time when the victims of rape shaved the partitions. Years of wandering and judicial deficiencies have lengthy inflicted a double penalty to the victims.

Although already thought of against the law by the Napoleonic penal code of 1810, rape was generally requalified as a easy crime and tried within the correctional court docket. In the absence of proof of bodily constraint, the victims struggled to acquire justice.

In 1978, “The Aix-en-Provence trial”, higher often known as the Tonglet-Castellano affair, will change the notion of rape by society and spotlight the faults of the judicial system of the time.

A bit nook of paradise turns right into a nightmare

It all began on August 21, 1974. Two younger Belgian ladies, as a pair, Anne Tonglet and Araceli Castellano, camp in Morgiou, a Calanque de Marseille. Serge Petrilli, a younger man from the nook, notices them and decides to strategy them. Very rapidly, the 2 younger ladies postpone their advances.

“I who dredged the most beautiful girls in the Calanque, I was sent to walk by two sausages. It was intolerable and I promised to take revenge, ”he’ll inform the gendarmes.

The man returns just a few hours later with two accomplices, Guy Roger and Albert Mouglalis. The night runs on the nightmare for the 2 younger ladies. The three males enter their tent, beat them after which violate them for a number of hours. In the early morning, in shock, the 2 victims discover the power to go to the gendarmerie.

The three males are rapidly arrested, however defend themselves by pretending that the 2 ladies had been consenting. The scenario steadily turns towards them. Naturists, lesbians, feminists … They are perceived as ladies with mild mores who would have brought on them by their habits. Finally, the three males are solely charged with assault and accidents, crimes tried in prison court docket.

Following rape, Araceli Castellano discovers that she is pregnant. The voluntary termination of being pregnant (abortion) being prohibited in Belgium, a physician however accepts to apply abortion. Despite the checks, the 2 younger ladies resolve to combat to have their victims’ standing acknowledged.

A political and media trial

In 1978, after 4 years of fierce battle, it was a primary victory. The case is returned to the Bouches-du-Rhône Assize Court in Aix-en-Provence.

The two younger ladies are defended by a well-known lawyer, Gisèle Halimi, who transforms this trial into an actual feminist combat towards the trivialization of rape.

To uncover



The kangaroo of the day

Answer

By its unprecedented media and political repercussions, this trial performed a key position within the evolution of French mentalities and legislation. In 1980, he led to the inscription of a exact definition of rape within the penal code, increasing the idea past the one vaginal penetration.

Find the decryption of this historic video trial.