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A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and received his jail term extended to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of four women and five men, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, reached out to the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We expect the jury will declare that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not given by another,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and bringing in numerous individuals to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his sentence. He was initially sentenced to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to ten years.

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

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from isolation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The trial became a central issue for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by crowds gathered to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. How could I have give you agreement? Never.”

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

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is possibly in the process of that, maybe propelled by the collective awareness spurred by the publication of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire sordid cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

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 father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a evaluator that annually he looked for paid sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the pressure of the first trial.