🔗 Share this article France's Higher Court Increases Jail Time for Gisele Pelicot Rapist An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of sexually assaulting Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her then-husband – and was given his incarceration period extended to ten years. Higher Court Case Husamettin Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his first conviction last year, underwent a retrial this week at the higher court in Nîmes. A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, ruled against Dogan on Thursday of raping Pelicot in her bedroom in Provence in the morning of 29 June 2019. The testimony revealed that Dogan, a family man, reached out to the victim's then husband, the husband, in an digital platform titled “without her knowledge”, where Pelicot was seeking men to visit his house to rape his wife once he had sedated her into a comatose state. We expect the court will say loud and clear that in this nation, fundamental rights are also women’s rights – that permission is individual, not given by another,” declared the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Agreement is obtained personally and not via a representative from a spouse.” Context The husband, one of the worst sex offenders in France's contemporary records, was given a prison term to twenty years in prison last year for sedating his then wife and bringing in multiple perpetrators to sexually assault her in her home in the community of Mazan over a period of many years of their union. Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a high-profile trial last year, and Dogan was the sole individual to appeal against his sentence. He was originally handed a term to nine years in prison, a punishment raised on Thursday to a decade. The state's attorney, Dominique Sie, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “completely denies to take any blame”. Courtroom Details Dogan had initially sent the husband inappropriate pictures and then traveled an hour from his town in Provence to rape Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was going out, the testimony revealed. The ex-husband, who was transported from isolation in prison to briefly provide testimony at the appeal trial, informed the court that the accused had been aware his wife had been “sedated” and he communicated to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve rendered her unconscious without her knowledge.” The trial became a central issue for a wider discussion on rape culture in society as the defendant continued to say he was not guilty and had not perpetrated assault, stating that because Gisèle Pelicot’s husband had welcomed him into the residence, his actions had been permissible. The panel in the Nîmes appeals court was displayed visual proof of Gisèle Pelicot’s unconscious figure, comatose and breathing heavily in a comatose state, while a grinning Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a period of what police said was three and a half hours. The presiding judge said she had been at peril of death by suffocation. The state's case said there was absolute certainty that she had been unconscious and had not consented. Accused's Testimony The defendant informed the court the footage were simply “intimate moments” and denied it was rape. He said what he did was “a sexual act”, not rape. He told the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had allowed him to the home, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I wanted to stop,” Dogan informed the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.” Asked if he wanted to make a last words to the court, Dogan said: “I had no desire to injure that individual.” Survivor's Statement The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers assembled to support her, said to the defendant in court: “You fail to comprehend. When are you going to recognise you raped me? It is illegal to assault an incapacitated woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Not once.” The victim, 72, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to anonymity in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.” Legal Commentary Sie, turning to the victim in court, said Dogan’s failure to take blame showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The public is maybe in the midst of that, maybe motivated by the public consciousness spurred by the revelation of your case.” Sie said Dogan’s claims of blamelessness showed how rape culture was still widespread 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 addressed Dogan: “While you reject it, it’s not just a individual, it’s an entire unpleasant cultural framework that you are supporting.” Biographical Details The accused was originated from Turkey and at the age of 5 came to France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The court heard that his father was aggressive and that the defendant began using drugs aged 10. When he was seventeen he was apprehended by police for selling narcotics and his father evicted him of home. 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 wed and had a son with special needs, who he was the principal carer for, as his wife worked in a school canteen. The testimony revealed his wife did not know he had frequent sexual encounters beyond their union. His legal team said this was his method of dealing with his challenging existence. Dogan had told a court psychologist that annually he sought commercial sex on his birthday. His lawyers stated to the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the anxiety of the initial proceedings.