French Higher Tribunal Uphighers Prison Term for Gisèle Pelicot Rapist

A defendant was declared guilty on appeal of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his incarceration period extended to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had appealed his first conviction last year, faced a appeal hearing this week at the Nîmes court of appeal.

A panel of five men and four women, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in the south of France in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that the accused, a married father, made contact with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to assault his wife after he had drugged her into a unconscious state.

We trust the panel will declare that in this nation, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not given by another,” declared the victim's lawyer, her legal representative. “Consent is secured directly and not via a representative from a spouse.”

Context

The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and inviting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the town of Mazan over a duration of nearly ten years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his sentence. He was originally sentenced to nine years in prison, a penalty enhanced on Thursday to a decade.

The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”.

Evidence Presented

The defendant had initially sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the court heard.

Pelicot, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly testify at the appeal trial, informed the court that the accused had understood his wife had been “sedated” and he told to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her consent.”

The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was innocent and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his actions had been acceptable.

The panel in the higher court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a smiling Dogan committed rape repeatedly over a duration of what investigators stated was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by suffocation. The prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unaware and had not agreed.

Defendant's Statements

The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was assault. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He stated the court: “I did not commit rape.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had invited him to the house, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that woman.”

Survivor's Statement

Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by onlookers gathered to support her, said to Dogan in court: “You haven’t understood. When will you acknowledge you assaulted me? It is illegal to rape an unaware woman. When did I ever give you permission? Not once.”

The victim, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to privacy in the trial last year when she said: “The shame should shift.”

State's Argument

The prosecutor, speaking to the victim in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The public is perhaps in the process of that, possibly driven by the collective awareness resulting from the revelation of your case.”

The prosecutor said the defendant's claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “Now we must change rape culture to a society based on agreement.”

Sie said to the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire sordid social system that you are endorsing.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began consuming marijuana aged ten. When Dogan was seventeen he was stopped by authorities for drug trafficking and his parent kicked him out of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his young adulthood and had worked as a builder but had undergone periods of homelessness.

He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his spouse worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent intimate relations outside their union. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a mental health expert that once a year he looked for transactional encounters on his special day. His legal representatives stated to the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the stress of the initial proceedings.