France's Higher Court Uphighers Jail Time for Gisele Pelicot Assailant

A man has been found guilty on retrial of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and was given his prison sentence increased to 10 years.

Retrial Proceedings

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial 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 sexually assaulting Pelicot in her bedroom in the south of France in the morning of 29 June 2019.

The evidence showed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to the victim's husband at the time, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.

We trust the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not transferred,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, her legal representative. “Permission is received personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Context

The ex-husband, among the most severe sex offenders in recent French history, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage.

Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his verdict. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to a decade.

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

Evidence Presented

Dogan had initially sent Dominique Pelicot sexually explicit photos and then traveled an hour from his village in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was going out, the court heard.

The ex-husband, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the hearing, 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 sedated her without her consent.”

The trial became a key topic for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not engaged in violation, stating that because the victim's husband had welcomed him into the residence, his conduct had been justifiable.

The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was shown recorded footage of the victim's unconscious figure, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning the perpetrator performed assault multiple times over a period of what authorities reported was several hours. The court official said she had been at danger of fatal outcome by choking. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not agreed.

Dogan's Claims

Dogan stated to the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He told 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 deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” the accused informed the court. “I carried on because he reassured me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I never wanted to injure that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered to stand with her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you permission? Never.”

Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an symbol of resistance after she gave up her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

State's Argument

Sie, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s unwillingness to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the midst of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness spurred by the exposure of your ordeal.”

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

The prosecutor addressed the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire disturbing societal structure that you are upholding.”

Personal History

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a building manager. The testimony revealed that his father was abusive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his father evicted him of home. He spent time in prison for drug dealing in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had experienced periods of being unhoused.

He was wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his spouse worked in a institution's dining hall. The evidence showed his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations outside their marriage. His defence said this was his method of dealing with his stressful life. The defendant had informed a court psychologist that annually he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys told the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.