🔗 Share this article

A man was declared guilty on higher court review 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 out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of nine jurors, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, connected with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the court will declare that in this nation, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in recent French history, was given a prison term to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and soliciting dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was originally given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced 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”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was stepping out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of the victim's limp body, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Accused's Testimony

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “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 did not intend to hurt that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by onlookers present to support her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you permission? Not once.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The public is maybe in the process of that, perhaps driven by the societal understanding resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie told Dogan: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire disturbing societal structure that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved 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 using drugs aged 10. When he was 17 he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his father kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a court psychologist that annually he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had arthritis triggered by the stress of the original case.