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A man was convicted on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and has had his jail term extended to a decade.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her home in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a married father, connected with the victim's then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “without her knowledge”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state.

We trust the court will say loud and clear that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not delegated,” stated the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and inviting multiple perpetrators to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a period of many years of their marriage.

Dozens of additional defendants were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and the appellant was the only man to challenge his verdict. He was initially sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty raised on Thursday to ten years.

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

Courtroom Details

The defendant had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to rape 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, stated to the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I seek someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her unbeknownst to her.”

The proceedings became a key topic for a broader debate on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to say he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him into the room, his behavior had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was presented with video evidence of the victim's limp body, comatose and snoring in a deep sleep, while a smiling the perpetrator committed rape repeatedly over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant informed the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.”

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

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon departing the trial each day by crowds gathered to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you permission? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take responsibility showed that: “The shame remains. The public is possibly in the process of that, possibly driven by the public consciousness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “archaic” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told the defendant: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are endorsing.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five came to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The court heard that his parent was violent and that the defendant began consuming marijuana at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent forced him to leave the residence. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a evaluator that once a year he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had a medical condition triggered by the anxiety of the first trial.