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A defendant was convicted on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her husband – and received his jail term raised to a decade.

Higher Court Case

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

A jury of five men and four women, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, made contact with the victim's spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom named “without her consent”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to assault his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We expect the jury will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is personal, not transferred,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.

Fifty other men were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his conviction. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot graphic images and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was stepping out, the evidence indicated.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily give evidence at the appeal trial, stated to the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The trial became a central issue for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to claim he was not guilty and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the room, his actions had been justifiable.

The jury in the higher court was shown recorded footage of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling the perpetrator performed assault repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Accused's Testimony

The defendant stated to the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and denied it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” the accused told the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that woman.”

Victim's Response

The victim, who was cheered upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers gathered to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an unaware woman. How could I have give you consent? Never.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, turning to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. The community is maybe in the process of that, possibly propelled by the collective awareness brought by the publication of your ordeal.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “It is imperative to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.”

Sie addressed Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole unpleasant cultural framework that you are supporting.”

Biographical Details

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 moved to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that Dogan began using drugs aged 10. When he was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his father evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of being unhoused.

He was married and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed 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. The defendant had informed a evaluator that annually he sought transactional encounters on his birthday. His lawyers told the court he had arthritis triggered by the stress of the original case.