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A man was convicted on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her then-husband – and received his prison sentence raised to a decade.

Higher Court Case

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

A jury of four women and five men, accompanied by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's then husband, Dominique Pelicot, in an online chatroom titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a comatose state.

“We hope the court will declare that in this nation, human rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained personally and not via a representative from a husband.”

Context

The husband, a notorious sex offenders in recent French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his wife at the time and inviting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of many years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a notable trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to appeal against his conviction. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.

The lead state prosecutor, the prosecutor, had stated he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any accountability”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had initially sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his village in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly testify at the hearing, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to assault my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her consent.”

The trial became a focus point for a broader debate on sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not committed rape, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the room, his conduct had been acceptable.

The panel in the higher court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a duration of what authorities reported was several hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The state prosecution said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.

Defendant's Statements

Dogan informed the court the videos were simply “sexual encounters” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not assault. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the house, and therefore it was OK. He said he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot. “I attempted to cease,” 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 had no desire to hurt that individual.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was applauded upon exiting the courtroom each day by crowds assembled to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to rape an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.”

Gisèle Pelicot, 72, became an international feminist hero after she gave up her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Shame must change sides.”

Prosecutor's Remarks

Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take accountability showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is perhaps in the course of that, maybe driven by the societal understanding brought by the publication of your case.”

Sie said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still prevalent in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a ethos of permission.”

Sie told Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a person, it’s an whole sordid social system that you are upholding.”

Defendant's Background

The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of 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 ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was caught by police for selling narcotics and his parent kicked him out the residence. He served time in prison for trafficking in his early 20s and had worked as a laborer but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a son with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent extramarital activities outside their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had informed a court psychologist that annually he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had arthritis resulting from the pressure of the initial proceedings.