A man was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and was given his jail term increased to 10 years.
Appeal Trial
Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his first conviction last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.
A jury of four women and five men, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in southern France in the morning of 29 June 2019.
The testimony revealed that the accused, a married father, reached out to the victim's then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom called “without her knowledge”, where the husband was recruiting men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.
We trust the court will affirm that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is personal, not transferred,” stated the victim's attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is received directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”
Case History
The husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was handed a sentence to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and bringing in numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a period of many years of their union.
Fifty other men were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to challenge his verdict. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty increased on Thursday to a decade.
The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.
Testimony and Proof
The defendant had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.
The ex-husband, who was transported from segregation in prison to temporarily testify at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”
The courtroom became a focus point for a wider discussion on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, arguing that because the victim's husband had allowed him into the residence, his conduct had been permissible.
The jury in the higher court was presented with visual proof of the victim's unconscious figure, unconscious and snoring in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a timeframe of what police said was 3.5 hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of death by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not consented.
Defendant's Statements
Dogan told the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I never raped.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I tried to halt,” Dogan told the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.”
Inquired if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I never wanted to harm that lady.”
Pelicot's Words
The victim, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by supporters assembled to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you admit you violated me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. At what point did I give you agreement? At no time.”
Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an global icon after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.”
Legal Commentary
The prosecutor, addressing the victim in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is possibly in the midst of that, possibly motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the revelation of your case.”
The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “It is imperative to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”
The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”
Defendant's Background
The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his father worked as a concierge. The evidence indicated that his parent was aggressive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When he was seventeen he was caught by police for dealing drugs and his parent kicked him out the family house. He was incarcerated in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.
He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had repeated intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. Dogan had told a court psychologist that each year he sought commercial sex on his special day. His attorneys informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the pressure of the original case.
