Prosecution asks for 20-year sentence for Frenchman accused of drugging, mass rape of wife

AVIGNON, France (Reuters) -The prosecution asked on Monday that Dominique Pelicot be sentenced to prison for 20 years for drugging and raping his wife Gisele Pelicot and recruiting dozens of others to rape her for nearly a decade in a case that has shocked the world.

"The maximum sentence is 20 years, which is a lot... but at the same time ... too little in view of the seriousness of the acts that were committed and repeated", the public prosecutor Laure Chabaud told the court.

Dominique Pelicot, has admitted to drugging his wife, raping her and orchestrating her mass rape. The trial has attracted worldwide attention and turned into an examination of the pervasiveness of sexual violence.

Despite video evidence against them, most of the 50 other men on trial have said they did not realise they were raping her, did not intend to rape her or put all the blame on her husband, whom they said had manipulated them.

(Reporting by Marc Leras; Writing by Makini Brice, Ingrid Melander, editing by Tassilo Hummel)