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A defendant has been found guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his incarceration period extended to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his first conviction last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A jury of four women and five men, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had drugged her into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will declare that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not delegated,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The husband, among the most severe sexual predators in modern French history, was given a prison term to two decades in prison last year for incapacitating his spouse and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a period of nearly ten years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his conviction. He was initially handed a term to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The chief prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”.

Courtroom Details

Dogan had initially sent the husband graphic images and then traveled an hour from his residence in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed.

The ex-husband, who was brought from segregation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious unbeknownst to her.”

The courtroom became a key topic for a wider discussion on sexual violence norms in society as the defendant continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his conduct had been justifiable.

The jury in the Nîmes appeals court was shown video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a deep sleep, while a grinning Dogan performed assault multiple times over a period of what police said was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of death by choking. The state's case said there was no doubt that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant told the court the videos were simply “intimate moments” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan informed the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that individual.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by supporters present to support her, addressed Dogan in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you agreement? At no time.”

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

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. Society is maybe in the midst of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding spurred by the publication of your ordeal.”

The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a culture of consent.”

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “For as much as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire disturbing cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 relocated to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The court heard that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by authorities for dealing drugs and his father kicked him out the family house. He served time in prison for trafficking in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had experienced periods of homelessness.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their marriage. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his difficult circumstances. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that once a year he engaged in commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers informed the court he had a medical condition caused by the stress of the original case.