France's Appeal Court Uphighers Sentence for Gisele Pelicot Assailant

A defendant was convicted on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and was given his jail term extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

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

A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her consent”, where Pelicot was seeking men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the court will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and inviting 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.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to appeal against his sentence. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was blameless and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown visual proof of the victim's limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers present to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the course of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding brought by the exposure of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

Dogan was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his parent was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. Dogan had told a mental health expert that annually he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the stress of the initial proceedings.