Lawyers defending men accused in a mass rape trial in southern France said on Monday they would be filing legal complaints over internet users leaking their clients' personal information and thus endangering their families.
A court in the southern town of Avignon is trying Dominique Pelicot, a 71-year-old retiree, for repeatedly raping and enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his heavily sedated wife without her knowledge over a decade.
Fifty other men, aged between 26 and 74, are also on trial for allegedly taking part.
The court proceedings — which began last week and are running until December — are open to the public at the request of Dominique Pelicot's ex-wife and victim.
Attorneys representing the accused men said they would be filing legal complaints over people sharing the personal details of their clients online, leading to threats against them and their families.
"Personal information of the accused — their identity, surname, name, profession and sometimes even pictures taken inside the courtroom — have been shared on social media, in defiance of the basic rules of our law," said lawyer Isabelle Crepin-Dehaene, representing all their attorneys.
"Children of defendants have been singled out at school. Wives and family members have been insulted. Defendants have received malicious phone calls, with attempts to break into their home," she added.
"From this week, their different lawyers will file around 15 legal complaints with the relevant regional prosecutors' offices and several more will follow in the coming weeks," she said.
Most of the alleged rapes took place between July 2011 and October 2020, mainly in the Pelicots' home in Mazan, a village of 6,000 people in the southern region of Provence.
Eighteen of the 51 accused are in custody, including Dominique Pelicot, while 32 other defendants are attending the trial as free men.
The last one, still at large, will be judged in absentia.
Most face up to 20 years in jail for aggravated rape.
A lawyer for the Pelicot family had called on Friday for "the utmost restraint on social media" during the court case, saying it was a "tragedy for all families" involved.
Several psychological and psychiatric experts were to take the stand to speak about Dominique Pelicot on Monday, when the trial enters its second week.
Pelicot's sons David and Florian, his son-in-law Pierre P. and his brother Joel Pelicot, a retired doctor, were also to give testimony.
Dominique Pelicot is scheduled to speak on Tuesday afternoon.
AFP