The China Mail - Gisele Pelicot, magazine reach settlement over invasion of privacy

Attorney Emilie Sudre said late Tuesday that "an amicable settlement" had been reached between Gisele Pelicot and the Paris Match weekly, instead of the case going to court on Wednesday.

In April, Paris Match published seven pictures of Pelicot accompanied by a man it described as being her new companion walking in the streets in her new hometown.

Her lawyer Antoine Camus at the time said it was "disappointing" that Paris Match would secretly take pictures of Pelicot "whose ordeal was the subject of 3,000 pictures and videos".

He accused the magazine of "having learned nothing from the four-month trial" last year that saw her ex-husband and 50 other men convicted.

Sudre said Gisele Pelicot had not requested any "compensation" as part of the settlement.

Her client instead agreed that the magazine "pay 40,000 euros ($45,000) to two associations supporting victims of violence, including within families", especially children and women, she said.

The two non-governmental organisations fund a women's shelter and a riding centre that helps survivors recover, the second based in the southern town of Mazan where much of the abuse Gisele Pelicot suffered took place.

Christophe Bigot, a lawyer for Paris Match, said the magazine was "delighted with the solution, which would help victims of violence".

Gisele Pelicot, who has since changed her name, gained international acclaim after she demanded her trial be open to the public, insisting it was up to rapists -- not their victims -- to feel ashamed.

Dominique Pelicot, her former husband, drugged her for nearly a decade so he and dozens of strangers he recruited online could rape her in her own bed. He meticulously documented the abuse in files on his computer.

A French court in December sentenced him to 20 years in prison.

Fifty other men, the strangers who he recruited online to carry out abuse alongside him, were also convicted in a trial that saw no acquittals.

Seventeen of the other defendants initially lodged an appeal, but sixteen have since withdrawn their claim.

The single remaining appellant, Husamettin D., has the right to drop his appeal right up until the opening of his hearing scheduled for October 6.

F.Brown--ThChM