🔗 Share this article France's Appeal Tribunal Raises Prison Term for Gisele Pelicot Perpetrator A defendant was declared guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot following she was sedated by her then-husband – and has had his jail term extended to a decade. Appeal Trial Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had appealed his initial guilty verdict last year, faced a new trial this week at the Nîmes court of appeal. A jury of nine jurors, sitting with three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of raping the victim in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019. The court heard that the accused, a married father, connected with the victim's spouse, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state. We expect the jury will declare that in this country, fundamental rights are also rights of women – that consent is individual, not transferred,” declared Gisèle Pelicot’s attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received personally and not by proxy from a husband.” Background The husband, a notorious sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was sentenced to two decades in prison last year for sedating his wife at the time and soliciting dozens of men to rape her in her home in the Provence village of Mazan over a span of many years of their marriage. Numerous other individuals were found culpable in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the single defendant to contest his conviction. He was initially given a sentence to 9 years in prison, a sentence raised on Thursday to ten years. The state's attorney, the prosecutor, had argued he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any responsibility”. Courtroom Details The defendant had first sent Dominique Pelicot inappropriate pictures and then driven an hour from his village in Provence to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after telling his wife he was going out, the court heard. The ex-husband, who was brought from solitary confinement in prison to briefly give evidence at the appeal trial, told the court that the accused had known his wife had been “incapacitated” and he said to men by phone: “I seek someone to assault my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.” The trial became a key topic for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as Dogan continued to say he was not guilty and had not engaged in violation, arguing that because the victim's husband had invited him into the residence, his behavior had been permissible. The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed video evidence of Gisèle Pelicot’s limp body, unconscious and snoring in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan performed assault multiple times over a period of what police said was several hours. The judge said she had been at risk of fatal outcome by asphyxiation. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been unaware and had not consented. Accused's Testimony The defendant stated to the court the footage were simply “sex scenes” and rejected it was rape. He said what he did was “an intimate behavior”, not rape. He told the court: “I am innocent of assault.” He said Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had allowed him to the residence, and therefore it was permissible. He said he was deceived by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” the accused told 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 harm that woman.” Pelicot's Words Gisèle Pelicot, who was cheered upon leaving court each day by onlookers assembled to back her, told the defendant in court: “You do not grasp. When will you acknowledge you violated me? It’s a crime to assault an incapacitated woman. When did I ever give you agreement? 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: “Guilt ought to transfer.” Legal Commentary The prosecutor, addressing Gisèle Pelicot in court, said Dogan’s refusal to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is perhaps in the course of that, possibly driven by the societal understanding resulting from the revelation of your situation.” Sie said the defendant's claims of non-guilt showed how societal tolerance was still common in society as part of “archaic” forms of “patriarchal control”. He said: “Now we must change the culture of violence to a society based on agreement.” Sie told Dogan: “While you refuse to admit it, it’s not just a woman, it’s an entire unpleasant social system that you are endorsing.” Biographical Details The accused was born in the country of Turkey and at the age of five moved to the nation of France, where his father worked as a building manager. The court heard that his father was abusive and that Dogan began smoking cannabis aged 10. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for selling narcotics and his father kicked him out 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 being unhoused. He was wed and had a child with Down’s syndrome, who he was the primary guardian for, as his wife worked in a educational cafeteria. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had regular extramarital activities beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a court psychologist that once a year he looked for commercial sex on his special day. His attorneys stated to the court he had arthritis resulting from the stress of the original case.