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A man was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her spouse – and received his incarceration period raised to ten years.

Higher Court Case

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

A jury of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was looking for men to enter his residence to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We trust the jury will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not given by another,” declared the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured directly and not by proxy from a husband.”

Case History

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his wife at the time and inviting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found guilty in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his sentence. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any accountability”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had first sent the husband graphic images and then driven an hour from his town in Provence to rape the victim, after notifying his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.”

The trial became a central issue for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been acceptable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan performed assault on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

The survivor, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters assembled to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you consent? At no time.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the midst of that, maybe motivated by the collective awareness brought by the revelation of your case.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of non-guilt showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “As long as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The evidence indicated that his father was violent and that Dogan began consuming marijuana at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with special needs, 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 repeated sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that each year he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had a medical condition triggered by the stress of the first trial.