Dominique Pelicot, 71, was due to testify on Tuesday over charges he invited dozens of men to his home to abuse his wife, Gisèle Pelicot. His condition was not immediately clear.
A Frenchman who confessed to drugging his wife for years and bringing dozens of men into their home to join him in raping her was taken to the hospital on Tuesday just hours before he was due to testify in his trial, his lawyer said.
The condition of the man, Dominique Pelicot, 71, whose trial in Avignon, France, has shocked the country and packed two courtrooms with reporters from around the world, was not immediately clear.
His lawyer, Béatrice Zavarro, told reporters in the courthouse that Mr. Pelicot had been suffering from abdominal pain and discomfort in urinating since Friday, for which he had been excused from court on Monday.
On Tuesday, the presiding judge, Roger Arata, ordered Mr. Pelicot to undergo a medical examination and said that if he was admitted into the hospital the trial would be suspended until his condition improved.
Ms. Zavarro insisted that Mr. Pelicot, who had asked to testify, still planned to take the stand before his wife and three children, who have been in the courtroom since the trial began last week and have not communicated with him since his arrest in late 2020.
“I heard things this morning in the courtroom suggesting that obviously his absence would be on purpose: No way,” Ms. Zavarro said. “Let us be very clear, Mr. Pelicot has not shied away, Mr. Pelicot will not shirk, Mr. Pelicot will be there, he will answer all the questions. But there is this medical problem for which he did not plan.”
Testifying, she added, was “for him, essential.”
Mr. Pelicot has pleaded guilty to all of the charges against him. His lawyer has said that he hopes to use the trial to explain himself to Gisèle Pelicot, who was his wife for 50 years, and to his children.
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