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A man has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his jail term raised to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A jury of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, connected with the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a unconscious state.

“We hope the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not given by another,” stated the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a period of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

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

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly give evidence at the appeal trial, stated to the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a focus point for a larger conversation on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator engaged in violation on several occasions over a duration of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

The survivor, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by crowds gathered to stand with her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? Never.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is possibly in the process of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness brought by the revelation of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie said to the defendant: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an complete unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by police for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that each year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His legal representatives stated to the court he had a medical condition triggered by the pressure of the initial proceedings.