🔗 Share this article

A man has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and received his jail term raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of four women and five men, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

“We hope the panel will declare that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his sentence. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you violated me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. When did I ever give you permission? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is perhaps in the process of that, possibly propelled by the public consciousness resulting from the revelation of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole disturbing social system that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the family house. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had arthritis caused by the stress of the original case.