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An individual has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and was given his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

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

A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in southern France in the early hours of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to the victim'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 after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We trust the panel will declare that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not transferred,” stated the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is received directly and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to challenge his conviction. He was originally handed a term to 9 years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to ten years.

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

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the retrial, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to claim he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, 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 presented with recorded footage of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation on several occasions over a timeframe of what police said was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that woman.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to back her, told the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you admit you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an unaware woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

Legal Commentary

Sie, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The community is maybe in the midst of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness spurred by the publication of your situation.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a person, it’s an complete unpleasant cultural framework that you are upholding.”

Biographical Details

The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that Dogan began consuming marijuana aged 10. When he was seventeen he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his father evicted him the residence. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his spouse did not know he had regular extramarital activities beyond their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his stressful life. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that annually he sought transactional encounters on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had a medical condition resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.