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A man was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and has had his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a comatose state.

“We hope the panel will affirm that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is secured personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for sedating his then wife and inviting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his sentence. He was initially handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

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

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in the region to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the hearing, informed the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a focus point for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the residence, his behavior had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was shown video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I proceeded because he reassured me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to hurt that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you consent? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is possibly in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Sie told the defendant: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are supporting.”

Personal History

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was abusive and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave of home. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had arthritis caused by the pressure of the original case.