🔗 Share this article

A man has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her husband – and was given his jail term extended to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, underwent a new trial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that the accused, a family man, reached out to Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an digital platform called “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a deep sleep.

We trust the panel will affirm that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is individual, not transferred,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is secured personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Case History

The husband, among the most severe sex offenders in modern French history, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the single defendant to contest his sentence. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape the victim, after informing his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her knowledge.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his behavior had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was displayed visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and breathing heavily in a deep sleep, while a smiling Dogan performed assault repeatedly over a period of what investigators stated was several hours. The court official said she had been at risk of death by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been unconscious and had not consented.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to injure that lady.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers present to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you assaulted me? It’s a crime to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you agreement? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an global icon after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Legal Commentary

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the process of that, maybe driven by the public consciousness brought by the revelation of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how societal tolerance was still prevalent in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor said to the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five relocated to France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began using drugs at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for dealing drugs and his father evicted him of home. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had informed a mental health expert that annually he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His lawyers told the court he had arthritis caused by the stress of the original case.