A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was drugged unconscious by her spouse – and received his jail term raised to a decade.
Retrial Proceedings
Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a new trial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.
A panel of nine jurors, accompanied by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in the south of France in the early hours of 29 June 2019.
The court heard that Dogan, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, the husband, in an digital platform named “unbeknownst to her”, where the husband was seeking men to enter his residence to rape his wife after he had rendered her unconscious into a comatose state.
“We hope the jury will say loud and clear that in this society, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that agreement is personal, not delegated,” stated the victim's lawyer, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not through someone else from a husband.”
Context
The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in modern French history, was handed a sentence to two decades in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their union.
Fifty other men were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his conviction. He was first handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment enhanced on Thursday to 10 years.
The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.
Testimony and Proof
Dogan had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his residence in Provence to assault the victim, after notifying his wife he was leaving, the evidence indicated.
The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly provide testimony at the retrial, told the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he told 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 sexual violence norms in society as Dogan continued to assert he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the bedroom, his actions had been acceptable.
The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of the victim's unresponsive form, sedated and snoring in a comatose state, while a smiling Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a period of what authorities reported was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission.
Defendant's Statements
Dogan told the court the recordings were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was manipulated by Dominique Pelicot. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told the court. “I continued because he reassured me.”
Inquired if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to hurt that woman.”
Victim's Response
The survivor, who was applauded upon leaving court each day by onlookers present to back her, said to Dogan in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to assault an unconscious woman. How could I have give you consent? Not once.”
The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she relinquished her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”
Prosecutor's Remarks
Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is possibly in the course of that, possibly motivated by the collective awareness brought by the exposure of your situation.”
Sie said the defendant's claims of innocence showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “male domination”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”
Sie said to Dogan: “As long as you deny it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire unpleasant societal structure that you are upholding.”
Biographical Details
Dogan 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 father was abusive and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his parent evicted him the family house. He served time in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a laborer but had faced periods of being unhoused.
He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The evidence showed his spouse did not know he had regular sexual encounters beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his stressful life. The defendant had stated to a court psychologist that each year he engaged in transactional encounters on his special day. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the pressure of the original case.
