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A defendant was convicted on retrial of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his prison sentence increased to ten years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her residence in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum called “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

We expect the jury will affirm that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is individual, not delegated,” said the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is secured personally and not through someone else from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, one of the worst sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting dozens of men 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 convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to challenge his verdict. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a sentence increased on Thursday to 10 years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the appeal trial, informed the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of the victim's unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan performed assault multiple times over a duration of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to harm that lady.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by crowds gathered to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to rape an unconscious woman. At what point did I give you consent? Not once.”

The victim, 72, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

Sie, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the process of that, possibly motivated by the collective awareness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete sordid cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was originated from Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his father evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team 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 lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation caused by the stress of the initial proceedings.