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An individual was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and received his incarceration period raised to ten years.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, underwent a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will say loud and clear that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to contest his conviction. He was initially sentenced to 9 years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown recorded footage of the victim's limp body, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation multiple times over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He stated the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, told Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you consent? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she gave up 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 Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is possibly in the course of that, possibly motivated by the societal understanding spurred by the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out the family house. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. Dogan had informed a evaluator that annually he engaged in paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the original case.