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A man was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and has had his prison sentence extended to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A panel of four women and five men, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in southern France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We trust the panel will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not given by another,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of almost a decade of their union.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his verdict. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his village in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was brought from isolation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the room, his behavior had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by crowds present to stand with her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the process of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding brought by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire sordid societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a court psychologist that each year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.