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An individual was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and received his jail term increased to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, made contact with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an internet forum named “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We trust the jury will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not transferred,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to challenge his conviction. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to say he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a period of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused stated to the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to support her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is possibly in the course of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was caught by police for dealing drugs and his father forced him to leave the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a court psychologist that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had a medical condition triggered by the stress of the first trial.