🔗 Share this article

A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and was given his incarceration period increased to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, experienced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

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

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an internet forum named “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the panel will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Background

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for drugging his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his conviction. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to hurt that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds assembled to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is possibly in the course of that, possibly propelled by the collective awareness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave of home. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he sought paid sex on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the stress of the original case.