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A man was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and received his prison sentence increased to ten years.

Appeal Trial

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

A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in the south of France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an internet forum called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” said the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured directly and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to ten years.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with visual proof of the victim's limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan informed the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to support her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It’s a crime to rape an unconscious woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The community is possibly in the midst of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness brought by the revelation of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out of home. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a evaluator that annually he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis caused by the pressure of the initial proceedings.