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A man was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an internet forum named “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We expect the court will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is obtained directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was first sentenced to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in the region to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was several hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is perhaps in the course of that, maybe propelled by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his father kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a mental health expert that once a year he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives told the court he had arthritis resulting from the pressure of the original case.