🔗 Share this article French Appeal Court Uphighers Prison Term for Gisele Pelicot Rapist An individual has been found guilty on higher court review of raping Gisèle Pelicot after she was sedated by her husband – and has had his prison sentence increased to ten years. Retrial Proceedings Dogan, forty-four, an unemployed builder, who had contested his initial guilty verdict last year, experienced a appeal hearing this week at the higher court in Nîmes. A jury of five men and four women, joined by three judges, convicted Dogan on Thursday of sexually assaulting Pelicot in her residence in Provence in the morning of June 29, 2019. The court heard that Dogan, a married father, reached out to the victim's then husband, the husband, in an online chatroom titled “without her consent”, where the husband was looking for men to come to his home to rape his wife after he had sedated her into a deep sleep. We expect the panel will affirm that in this country, human rights are also rights of women – that agreement is individual, not delegated,” stated the victim's attorney, Antoine Camus. “Permission is received directly and not through someone else from a spouse.” Context The ex-husband, a notorious sexual predators in modern French history, was handed a sentence to 20 years in prison last year for drugging his spouse and bringing in dozens of men to sexually assault her in her home in the town of the village of Mazan over a span of nearly ten years of their marriage. Numerous other individuals were found convicted in a widely publicized trial last year, and Dogan was the only man to challenge his sentence. He was first given a sentence to nine years in prison, a punishment increased on Thursday to ten years. The chief prosecutor, the prosecutor, had contended he should serve 12 years, because he “stubbornly rejects to take any blame”. Testimony and Proof The defendant had first sent the husband sexually explicit photos and then driven an hour from his town in the region to assault Gisèle Pelicot, after informing his wife he was leaving, the testimony revealed. Pelicot, who was transported from solitary confinement in prison to temporarily provide testimony at the retrial, informed the court that Dogan had understood his wife had been “drugged” and he said to men by phone: “I want someone to violate my wife after I’ve put her to sleep unbeknownst to her.” The proceedings became a focus point for a larger conversation on societal attitudes in society as Dogan continued to claim he was blameless and had not perpetrated assault, contending that because the victim's husband had invited him into the bedroom, his behavior had been permissible. The jury in the higher court was displayed video evidence of the victim's limp body, unconscious and breathing heavily in a unconscious condition, while a grinning Dogan committed rape on several occasions over a timeframe of what authorities reported was several hours. The judge said she had been at peril of death by choking. The prosecution said there was no question that she had been incapacitated and had not agreed. Defendant's Statements The defendant told the court the videos were simply “sex scenes” and disputed it was violation. He said what he did was “a consensual activity”, not assault. He declared the court: “I never raped.” He said the victim's husband had invited him to the residence, and therefore it was OK. He said he was influenced by the husband. “I attempted to cease,” Dogan told the court. “I carried on because he persuaded me.” Questioned if he wanted to make a last words to the court, the defendant said: “I did not intend to harm that individual.” Survivor's Statement The survivor, who was applauded upon departing the trial each day by onlookers gathered 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 unconscious woman. At what point did I give you agreement? Never.” Gisèle Pelicot, seventy-two, became an international feminist hero after she waived her right to confidentiality in the trial last year when she said: “Guilt ought to transfer.” Legal Commentary Sie, turning to the victim in court, said the defendant's refusal to take accountability showed that: “Guilt has not shifted. The community is maybe in the course of that, perhaps motivated by the public consciousness resulting from the exposure of your ordeal.” The prosecutor said Dogan’s claims of innocence showed how societal tolerance was still widespread in society as part of “outdated” forms of “gender-based power”. He said: “We need to change rape culture to a ethos of permission.” The prosecutor addressed Dogan: “As long as you reject it, it’s not just a person, it’s an entire sordid cultural framework that you are endorsing.” Biographical Details The accused was originated from the country of Turkey and at the age of five came to the nation of France, where his parent worked as a concierge. The testimony revealed that his parent was violent and that the defendant began smoking cannabis at the age of ten. When Dogan was 17 he was apprehended by authorities for dealing drugs and his parent evicted him the residence. He spent time in prison for trafficking in his twenties and had worked as a laborer but had experienced periods of being unhoused. He was wed and had a child with a genetic condition, who he was the main caregiver for, as his spouse worked in a school canteen. The court heard his spouse did not know he had regular intimate relations beyond their union. His legal team said this was his strategy for managing with his difficult circumstances. Dogan had stated to a evaluator that annually he looked for paid sex on his special day. His lawyers informed the court he had joint inflammation triggered by the stress of the first trial.