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A defendant was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and was given his prison sentence raised to ten years.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, made contact with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an digital platform called “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

“We hope the jury will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and inviting 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 marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the sole individual to contest his verdict. He was originally given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, informed the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his actions had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator engaged in violation repeatedly over a timeframe of what investigators stated was several hours. The court official said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to harm that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to back her, addressed Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you raped me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is possibly in the midst of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness spurred by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

Dogan was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was 17 he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with special needs, 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 regular extramarital activities beyond their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that once a year he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the original case.