🔗 Share this article

A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and has had his prison sentence increased to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her residence in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom named “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We expect the court will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not delegated,” declared the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Case History

The husband, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and bringing in dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was originally given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after telling his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the appeal trial, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to claim he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant told the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused stated to the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is possibly in the course of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete unpleasant societal structure that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had stated to a evaluator that annually he sought paid sex on his special day. His lawyers told the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the original case.