🔗 Share this article French Appeal Court Uphighers Prison Term for Gisèle Pelicot Perpetrator A man was declared guilty on higher court review of raping Gisele Pelicot following she was rendered comatose by her spouse – and received his jail term raised to a decade. Appeal Trial Husamettin Dogan, 44, an out-of-work construction worker, who had challenged his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a retrial this week at the appeals court in Nîmes. A panel of five men and four women, sitting with three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her home in Provence in the early hours of 29 June 2019. The testimony revealed that the accused, a family man, connected with Gisèle Pelicot’s spouse, Dominique Pelicot, in an internet forum titled “unbeknownst to her”, where Pelicot was recruiting men to enter his residence to assault his wife once he had sedated her into a unconscious state. “We hope the court will declare that in this society, human rights are also women’s rights – that consent is personal, not transferred,” stated Gisèle Pelicot’s lawyer, her legal representative. “Agreement is obtained directly and not via a representative from a spouse.” Context The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in recent French history, was sentenced to twenty years in prison last year for incapacitating his then wife and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the community of the village of Mazan over a duration of almost a decade of their marriage. Fifty other men were found guilty in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to appeal against his verdict. He was first handed a term to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years. The lead state prosecutor, Dominique Sie, had argued he should serve twelve years, because he “absolutely refuses to take any responsibility”. Evidence Presented The defendant had first sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his residence in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after notifying his wife he was going out, the court heard. The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the hearing, told the court that Dogan had known his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve sedated her without her consent.” The proceedings became a central issue for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as the defendant continued to assert he was blameless and had not committed rape, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the room, his conduct had been permissible. The jury in the higher court was presented with visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unresponsive form, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan engaged in violation multiple times over a duration of what investigators stated was 3.5 hours. The court official said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The state prosecution said there was no doubt that she had been unconscious and had not given permission. Dogan's Claims The defendant told the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused stated to the court. “I continued because he persuaded me.” Asked if he wanted to make a final statement to the court, Dogan said: “I did not intend to harm that woman.” Survivor's Statement The victim, who was supported upon leaving court each day by onlookers gathered to back her, said to the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It is illegal to assault an unaware woman. At what point did I give you permission? At no time.” The victim, 72, became an global icon after she relinquished her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.” Prosecutor's Remarks Sie, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said the defendant's unwillingness to take responsibility showed that: “Shame has not yet changed sides. Society is maybe in the process of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the publication of your ordeal.” The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how rape culture was still common in society as part of “old-fashioned” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “We need to change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.” The prosecutor told Dogan: “For as much as you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an whole sordid societal structure that you are upholding.” Personal History Dogan was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five relocated to the nation of France, where his father worked as a concierge. The court heard that his parent was violent and that Dogan began using drugs at the age of ten. When he was 17 he was caught by police for drug trafficking and his parent evicted him of home. He was incarcerated in prison for narcotics offenses in his twenties and had worked as a construction worker but had faced periods of living on the streets. He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the main caregiver for, as his wife worked in a institution's dining hall. The court heard his spouse did not know he had repeated extramarital activities outside their marriage. His defence said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had told a court psychologist that once a year he looked for commercial sex on his birthday. His legal representatives told the court he had arthritis caused by the pressure of the first trial.