🔗 Share this article

An individual was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Context

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his conviction. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to rape the victim, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The trial became a focus point for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the bedroom, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault on several occasions over a period of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” 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.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to hurt that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters assembled to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an incapacitated woman. How could I have give you agreement? At no time.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is perhaps in the course of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your case.”

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

The prosecutor told Dogan: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a builder but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a mental health expert that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the original case.