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A defendant has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence raised to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the jury will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not given by another,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to appeal against his verdict. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to ten years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling Dogan performed assault multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by choking. 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 “sex scenes” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds present to back her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? At no time.”

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

State's Argument

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the course of that, maybe motivated by the societal understanding brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete unpleasant cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was 17 he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out of home. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that each year he sought paid sex on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.