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A man was declared guilty on appeal of sexually assaulting Gisele Pelicot following she was drugged unconscious by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period increased to 10 years.

Appeal Trial

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the appeals court in Nîmes.

A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of sexually assaulting the victim in her home in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom named “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to assault his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

We trust the panel will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that permission is personal, not given by another,” declared the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is received personally and not by proxy from a spouse.”

Case History

The ex-husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was originally given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to 10 years.

The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

Dogan had first sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed.

Pelicot, who was transported from segregation in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I want someone to abuse my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been permissible.

The jury in the higher court was presented with video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan engaged in violation on several occasions over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by choking. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had brought him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan told the court. “I proceeded because he persuaded me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to injure that woman.”

Victim's Response

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon leaving court each day by supporters gathered to support her, told Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It’s a crime to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you consent? At no time.”

The victim, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the course of that, possibly propelled by the societal understanding spurred by the revelation of your ordeal.”

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

The prosecutor said to Dogan: “While you deny it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an whole unpleasant societal structure that you are endorsing.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his father evicted him of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of living on the streets.

He was wed and had a child with special needs, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters outside their union. His defence said this was his way of coping with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had stated to a mental health expert that each year he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis caused by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.