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A defendant has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and received his jail term raised to 10 years.

Higher Court Case

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

A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the panel will affirm that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not transferred,” said the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is secured personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in 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.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his verdict. He was first sentenced to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the appeal trial, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been justifiable.

The panel in the higher court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a duration of what police said was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to injure that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you permission? Never.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is perhaps in the process of that, possibly driven by the public consciousness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete disturbing societal structure that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs aged ten. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by police for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder 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 frequent sexual encounters 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 engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had arthritis triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.