🔗 Share this article

An individual was convicted on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and has had his prison sentence increased to ten years.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, underwent a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform called “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was recruiting men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We expect the panel will affirm that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not transferred,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Case History

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years.

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

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the retrial, informed the court that Dogan 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 put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The trial became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was blameless and had not committed rape, stating that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with recorded footage of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant told the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. 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 acceptable. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, the defendant said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by crowds present to stand with her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you assaulted me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you permission? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the midst of that, perhaps propelled by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your situation.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by police for drug trafficking and his father forced him to leave the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a court psychologist that each year he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.