International

The man who imitated Pelicot admits to having drugged and raped his wife

Jean-Pierre Maréchal, the man who sits on the bench in Avignon for having raped his wife and done it with Dominique Pelicot, whom he imitated in the procedure of subjecting her to a chemical submission, recognizes his full responsibility in the facts.

His lawyer, Patrick Gontard, insisted on Thursday that Maréchal has not tried to evade his responsibility, as shown by the fact that since he was arrested in 2020 he said that he “deserved the maximum, life imprisonment,” despite the fact that the crime of aggravated rape for which he is accused has a maximum penalty of 20 years.

In statements to the press before the hearing in the Criminal Court of Vaucluse (southeast of France), Gontard insisted on the role of “catalyst” that Dominique Pelicot had so that Maréchal, following his instructions, drugged his wife with anxiolytics so that, once in a state of unconsciousness, both men raped her.

The lawyer pointed out that Pelicot, with whom he had established contact through an online messaging and who proposed to resorting to chemical submission as he had been doing for years with his own wife, was for him like “a dynamite cartridge that blew everything up.”

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According to his story, he provided her with the medicines and recommended the dosage to administer them with the aim that her partner would lose consciousness and they could abuse her.

The wife maintains the relationship

The lawyer has also pointed out that Pelicot was seven or eight times at his client’s house and the violations were carried out on three of those occasions.

In one of those visits, the woman woke up unexpectedly and surprised the stranger next to her in her room.

The explanations that her husband gave her then, that she had brought him to see her in underwear, did not convince her.

Despite everything, she did not report it even when the case was uncovered, in September 2020.

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In her statement this Wednesday before the court, the one who is still Maréchal’s wife explained that she did not denounce him for her children, who have seen their lives upset by these events, and because during their common life he had been “a wonderful man.”

He also acknowledged that he wanted to maintain contact with him, with whom he communicates through his children, and that he even requested to be able to see him in prison so that he would tell him “to his face” what he had done to him.

The psychological exam of the accused

Along with Maréchal and Pelicot, there are 49 others prosecuted in this process for having raped the latter’s wife when she was under the effects of anxiolytics.

Gontard indirectly criticized the defense strategy of most of them, those who deny having known that Gisèle Pelicot was unconscious, by recalling that in French criminal law there is rape from the moment consent is not given to have a sexual relationship.

The lawyer admitted that the relationship with Pelicot was not the only trigger for his client’s criminal behavior, and alluded to several other elements of his life and psychology that could intervene, such as the fact that “he had almost no sex life with his wife” and was “very interested in sex” and to be born into a family marked by the sexual abuse of a violent father.

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This and other issues were addressed this Thursday at the hearing by the expert Annabelle Montagne, appointed by the justice for the psychological examination of Maréchal and other defendants.

The big unknown is whether the process will be able to continue next week, due to Pelicot’s absence since Tuesday due to illness. At the outset, there are many chances that Friday’s session will be suspended.

This situation has tensed the atmosphere between lawyers who, such as Pelicot and Maréchal’s, opt for a suspension.

The president of the Court, who has so far tried to maintain the program, has acknowledged today that if the main defendant could not appear from Monday it would be “a catastrophe.”

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International

Marco Rubio warns Venezuela against military action against Guyana

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Venezuela on Thursday that a military attack on Guyana would be “a big mistake” and “a very bad day for them,” expressing his support for Georgetown in its territorial dispute with Caracas.

“It would be a very bad day for the Venezuelan regime if they attacked Guyana or ExxonMobil. It would be a very bad day, a very bad week for them, and it would not end well,” Rubio emphasized during a press conference in Georgetown alongside Guyanese President Irfaan Ali.

International

Ecuador oil spill worsens as containment dam collapses

The collapse of a containment dam holding back part of the 25,000+ barrels of oil spilled from a pipeline rupture nearly two weeks ago has worsened the environmental crisis in northwestern Ecuador, contaminating rivers and Pacific beaches.

The Ecuadorian government attributed the March 13 pipeline rupture—which led to the spill of 25,116 barrels of crude—to an act of sabotage. The spill affected three rivers and disrupted water supplies for several communities, according to authorities.

On Tuesday, due to heavy rains that have been falling since January, a containment dam on the Caple River collapsed. The Caple connects to other waterways in Esmeraldas Province, a coastal region bordering Colombia, state-owned Petroecuador said in a statement on Wednesday.

Seven containment barriers were installed in the Viche River, where crews worked to remove oil-contaminated debris. Additional absorbent materials were deployed in Caple, Viche, and Esmeraldas Rivers, which flow into the Pacific Ocean.

Authorities are also working to protect a wildlife refuge home to more than 250 species, including otters, howler monkeys, armadillos, frigatebirds, and pelicans.

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“This has been a total disaster,” said Ronald Ruiz, a leader in the Cube community, where the dam was located. He explained that the harsh winter rains caused river levels to rise, bringing debris that broke the containment barriersthat were holding the accumulated oil for extraction.

International

Federal court blocks Trump’s use of Enemy Alien Act for deportations

A federal appeals court upheld the block on former President Donald Trump’s use of the Enemy Alien Act on Wednesday, preventing him from using the law to expedite deportations of alleged members of the transnational criminal group Tren de Aragua.

With a 2-1 ruling, a panel from the Washington, D.C. Court of Appeals affirmed previous decisions by two lower court judges, maintaining the legal standoff between the White House and the judiciary.

On March 14, Trump invoked the 1798 Enemy Alien Act, a law traditionally used during wartime, to deport hundreds of Venezuelans whom he accused of belonging to Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization that originated in Venezuelan prisons.

The centuries-old law grants the president the power to detain, restrict, and expel foreign nationals from a country engaged in a “declared war” or an “invasion or predatory incursion” against the United States, following a public proclamation.