France's Higher Court Uphighers Jail Time for Gisele Pelicot Rapist

A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and has had his jail term raised to a decade.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her home in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that Dogan, a married father, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an digital platform named “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is secured directly and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and soliciting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of almost a decade of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any blame”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was going out, the court heard.

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

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to assert he was innocent and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was displayed video evidence of the victim's limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan told the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I carried on because he convinced me.”

Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to hurt that lady.”

Survivor's Statement

The victim, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds gathered to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. How could I have give you agreement? Not once.”

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

Legal Commentary

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “The shame remains. Society is perhaps in the process of that, perhaps propelled by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “male domination”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed the defendant: “For as much as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant social system that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his parent was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the residence. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The court heard his wife did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a court psychologist that annually he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers told the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.