France's Higher Tribunal Raises Sentence for Gisèle Pelicot Perpetrator

A defendant was declared guilty on retrial of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her spouse – and has had his prison sentence increased to a decade.

Higher Court Case

Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, experienced a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes.

A panel of five men and four women, joined by three judges, found Dogan guilty on Thursday of raping the victim in her residence in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019.

The court heard that Dogan, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a deep sleep.

“We hope the panel will say loud and clear that in this society, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is personal, not given by another,” said Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Consent is secured personally and not through someone else from a husband.”

Background

Dominique Pelicot, among the most severe sexual predators in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and inviting numerous individuals to rape her in her home in the Provence village of the village of Mazan over a duration of many years of their union.

Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to contest his sentence. He was initially given a sentence to nine years in prison, a sentence enhanced on Thursday to ten years.

The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had stated he should serve 12 years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”.

Testimony and Proof

The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the evidence indicated.

The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to temporarily give evidence at the hearing, stated to the court that Dogan had been aware his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I’m looking for someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep without her knowledge.”

The courtroom became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the room, his actions had been permissible.

The panel in the higher court was shown visual proof of the victim's limp body, sedated and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation repeatedly over a period of what investigators stated was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by asphyxiation. The state's case said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not given permission.

Dogan's Claims

The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “sexual encounters” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He declared the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had brought him to the home, and therefore it was acceptable. He said he was influenced by Dominique Pelicot. “I tried to halt,” Dogan stated to the court. “I proceeded because he convinced me.”

Questioned if he wanted to make a closing remarks to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to hurt that woman.”

Pelicot's Words

Gisèle Pelicot, who was supported upon exiting the courtroom each day by onlookers assembled to back her, addressed the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you raped me? It is unlawful to rape an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you consent? Never.”

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

Prosecutor's Remarks

The prosecutor, speaking to Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “The shame remains. The community is possibly in the course of that, perhaps driven by the public consciousness spurred by the publication of your situation.”

Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how normalized violence was still common in society as part of “outdated” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.”

Sie said to the defendant: “While you reject it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole disturbing societal structure that you are supporting.”

Defendant's Background

Dogan was born in Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a caretaker. The evidence indicated that his father was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis at the age of 10. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father forced him to leave 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 living on the streets.

He was married and had a child with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their marriage. His legal team said this was his way of coping with his challenging existence. The defendant had told a mental health expert that annually he engaged in paid sex on his birthday. His attorneys informed the court he had joint inflammation resulting from the pressure of the initial proceedings.