🔗 Share this article

An individual was declared guilty on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her husband – and has had his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had challenged his first conviction last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom named “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

We expect the panel will declare that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is obtained directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his verdict. He was originally handed a term to 9 years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been permissible.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's limp body, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He declared the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by supporters present to back her, told the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you consent? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take responsibility showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the course of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness spurred by the exposure of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an complete sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his father was aggressive and that Dogan began using drugs aged ten. When he was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out the residence. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his early 20s 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 spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities beyond their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a court psychologist that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his special day. His legal representatives informed the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the first trial.