Gisèle Pelicot to take stand to comment on rape trial evidence so far

Dominique Pelicot invited dozens of men to rape his then wife over a nine-year period

Gisèle Pelicot speaks to media as she leaves the Avignon court house, southern France, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Lewis Joly, File)

Gisèle Pelicot, the French grandmother who has become a feminist hero for insisting that the rape trial of her ex-husband and 50 other men should be held in public, will take the stand on Wednesday to comment on the evidence so far.

The 72-year-old former logistics manager was unknowingly sedated and raped by her then husband, Dominique Pelicot, 71, who crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and drinks, and invited men to rape her over a nine-year period from 2011 to 2020 in the village of Mazan in Provence.