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A defendant was convicted on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period extended to ten years.

Higher Court Case

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

A jury of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the court will affirm that in this country, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is obtained directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Background

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for sedating his spouse and inviting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their union.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his verdict. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

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

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, stated to the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to claim 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 acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown recorded footage of the victim's unresponsive form, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan committed rape multiple times over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused informed the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

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

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by crowds assembled to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you admit you raped me? It is unlawful to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. The community is possibly in the process of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your case.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole disturbing cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent forced him to leave of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was married 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 evidence showed his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had informed a evaluator that annually he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the anxiety of the initial proceedings.