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A man has been found guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and was given his jail term raised to ten years.

Appeal Trial

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

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom named “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to come to his home to assault his wife once he had rendered her unconscious into a unconscious state.

We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not transferred,” stated the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is secured personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was originally sentenced to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to assault the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

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 engaged in violation, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the room, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by choking. The prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant informed the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to harm that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by crowds assembled to stand with her, addressed the defendant 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? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. Society is maybe in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor told the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are supporting.”

Personal History

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 came to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him the family house. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone 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 wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a evaluator that each year he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the original case.