French prosecutors on Thursday, October 9, sought a 12-year jail term for the only man among 50 who claims he is innocent after being convicted of sexually abusing Gisèle Pelicot. The 72-year-old's former husband has admitted to drugging her with sedatives and inviting dozens of strangers to rape and abuse her over nearly a decade in a case that shocked the world.
Gisèle Pelicot allowed the public into the courtroom during the months-long trial last year to raise awareness about sexual violence, saying it was time for perpetrators – not victims – to be ashamed. A lower court last year sentenced Husamettin Dogan, 44, to a nine-year prison sentence after prosecutors also requested 12 years.
Prosecutor Dominique Sié said he was asking for three extra years in view of "Dogan's stance, in all its rigidity, as he absolutely refuses to take any responsibility." Dogan has said he never intended to rape her and was "trapped" by her ex-husband Dominique Pelicot in 2019 into thinking he would be taking part in a couple's sexual game.
"As long as you refuse to admit it, it's not just a woman, it's an entire sordid social system that you are endorsing," Sié said. "There needs to be an evolution for you, and for society, from rape culture to a culture of consent."
Gisèle Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Nîmes on Wednesday that Dogan had raped her and must "take responsibility" for his actions. An investigator on Tuesday said that images of the abuse found on Dominique Pelicot's hard drive showed he had stayed at the house for at least "three hours and 24 minutes." Footage shown to the court showed him penetrating an inert Gisèle Pelicot.
Antoine Camus, one of Gisèle Pelicot's lawyers, also said that Dogan's sentence should be revised. "You don't touch a sleeping victim," he said. "We hope that this jury will say loud and clear that in France, human rights are also women's rights, that you cannot get consent from a husband, and that a sexual act imposed on a sleeping body is a rape," he added.
A panel of five judges issued the verdicts against Dominique Pelicot and his 50 co-defendants at the end of the trial last year in the southern city of Avignon. But this time in Nîmes, it will be up to a people's jury of five men and four women to decide on Dogan's fate, likely in the afternoon.
The other 49 men accused of abusing Gisèle Pelicot received sentences ranging from three years in jail, including two suspended, to 15 years behind bars for a man who visited the Pelicot home six times. Another man, who did not assault Gisèle Pelicot but repeatedly abused his own wife with Dominique Pelicot's help, was sentenced to 12 years.
Gisèle Pelicot on Wednesday called for "victims to never be ashamed of what was forced upon them."