Nadia El Bouroumi has faced criticism for her recent video (Picture: Instagram)
One of the defence lawyers in the ongoing mass rape trial in France has drawn criticism from fellow lawyers after sharing a video of her dancing and singing online.
Nadia El Bouroumi, 45, is one of the defence lawyers in the trial of Dominque Pelicot and 50 other men, who are accused of raping Pelicot’s wife Gisele over a decade.
Pelicot admitted in court to repeatedly tranquilising his wife and allowing dozens of other men to rape her after advertising her on a website called ‘Without Her Knowledge’.
El Bouroumi is representing two of the other men involved, Omar Douiri and Jean Marc Leloup.
But her conduct has been criticised by other lawyers both due to her conduct in court, and her recent clip shared on social media, MailOnline reports.
She posted a video of herself singing and dancing along to Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go Go – and the link between the song’s chorus and Pelicot’s actions referencing ‘the chemical submission suffered by the victim’ was ‘hard not to see’, according to local paper La Provence.
She sang and danced along to the 80s Wham hit (Picture: Instagram)
The clip has drawn criticism (Picture: Instagram)
The clip was posted in retaliation against criticism of her technique in court – as El Bouroumi had been heard raising her voice and criticising Gisele while sowing doubts about her sexual behaviour.
The video was captioned: ‘To all the extremists who think they can muzzle me! This is for you!
‘Never will you shut me up because you feel my opinion or position doesn’t suit you…this song is for all those who have to get up early before they can shut me up.
‘I was beaten and raped when I was younger and I did not become hateful against man. I don’t confuse my story with anyone else’s.
‘All the well-thinkers who insult and denigrate me under the pretext of defending one woman are working hard on another! May God forgive us our trespasses!’
Last week, the court was shown several graphic images and video clips of Gisele in various states of undress with her ex-husband and other men.
In response, El Bouroumi said: ‘She (Mrs Pelicot) says she doesn’t remember, but those who have received photos of her can see that she is present there, she moves, she speaks.
‘When you receive photos like these, you can say to yourself that this is a woman who likes sexual games.’
El Bouroumi later said she had never denied Gisele her status as a victim but wanted to point out inconsistencies between her testimony and the expertise of chemical submission ,adding she had ‘the right in a democracy to be a defence lawyer’.
Gisele bravely gave up her right to automatic anonymity to allow the details of the trial to be published (Picture: Coust Laurent/ABACA/Shutterstock)
Pelicot admitted drugging and raping his wife (Picture: REUTERS)
However, her Instagram video was condemned by Nicolas Hervieu, a legal professor at the University of Evry near Paris who said: ‘The lawyer’s freedom of expression does not authorise them to give violent, vulgar or a cynical image of their profession.’
Corisca based lawyer Jean-Pierre Ribaut-Pasqualini wrote: ‘You impact the entire image of the profession with your publications.
‘I just watched the video (one of the videos?) posted by the colleague who intervenes in the Mazan case. I am dismayed and devastated.
‘I have the feeling that the hearing is now out of control. It’s dramatic.’
While another colleague, Marseille based Alain Lothe said: ‘Spreading things like this on social media and singing this verse seems unworthy to me and not in line with the requirements that are ours as lawyers.’
In response to the condemnation, El Bouroumi posted a lengthy statement on social media saying she ‘at no point’ tried to make fun of Gisele, and that she had been ‘misunderstood’.
Who is El Bouroumi defending in court?
El Bouroumi is representing 74-year-old retired truck driver Jean-Marc Leloup, and recruitment consultant Omar Douiri, 36.
According to a court document, Leloup went to Pelicot’s home several times between January 2011 and November 2020 and is accused of rape.
He has been divorced for 20 years, a grown-up daughter aged 45, and he told police he ‘liked women and libertinage’.
Leloup told investigator the first time he went to Mazan, Pelicot had told him his wife ‘took sleeping tablets’ and this was ‘a game for her’ but nothing had happened.
He added that he Pelicot never said ‘he was drugging his wife’ but that she ‘was taking the tablets herself’, insisted he did not rape her and is adamant he is the ‘victim of a plot’.
Videos obtained from devices seized at Pelicot’s home are said to show Leloup having sex with Mrs Pelicot but he claims they are ‘fake’.
Douiri is said to have contacted Pelicot via the now closed chat room and was invited by him to ‘have sex’ with his wife in November 2017.
A video of him was found on a file on Pelicot’s computer under the name ‘Abuse’ and the file reveals he has been married for six years.
Douiri told investigators he had ‘no idea if she was awake’ as he didn’t speak with her but insists he was invited to have sex with her by Pelicot.
He said he had no idea Pelicot had filmed the rape and that he denied any wrong doing insisting that he was ‘manipulated’.
Pelicot had admitted to the court his involvement in the decade long abuse against his wife who he sedated, and which took place until 2020 at their home in the village of Mazan, half an hour from Avignon.
Eighteen others who are jointly charged with him are in custody while the rest are on bail, although one is said to have skipped the country, and of those accused 14 have admitted raping Mrs Pelicot.
Police launched their investigation against Pelicot after he was arrested in 2020 for upskirting women at a supermarket in Carpentras near his home and they later found 1000s of images of his wife being abused on his laptop.
Detectives have listed a total of 92 rapes committed on Mrs Pelicot by 83 men of whom 51 have been identified aged between 26 and 73 years old.
In a separate case, Pelicot has been charged with raping and murder of a 23-year-old estate agent in Paris in 1991.
The former electrician has also admitted one rape in 1999, after DNA testing linked him to the attack.
The trial continues and is expected to last until December.
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