(Credits: EPA)
The only man to challenge his conviction for raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and unconscious has just been handed a longer jail term.
Gisèle, 72, waived her anonymity during a rape and sexual assault trial against her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot and 50 other men in Avignon, France.
Husamettin Dogan, a 44-year-old construction worker, had claimed he was deceived by Pelicot in his failed appeal over his nine-year sentence.
His lawyer, Jean-Marc Darrigade, said Dogan won’t appeal again. ‘He’s very tired and accepts the decision’ the attorney said.
‘The extra year is more symbolic than anything else.’
(Picture: AFP)
The 50 other men convicted last December did not appeal the landmark verdict.
They included Dominique Pelicot, Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband, who knocked her unconscious by lacing her food and drink with drugs and offered her to strangers he met online between 2011 and 2020, filming their assaults.
Dogan was tried on charges of aggravated rape by administering substances that impair judgment or self-control — an offence punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
‘One cannot, in 2025, think that because she said nothing, that she agreed. Because that kind of thinking belongs to another era!’ the prosecutor told the court.
Dogan had denied that he intended to rape Pelicot and argued that he was tricked by Dominique Pelicot.
Dominique Pelicot was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison, which was the maximum possible. He admitted his role and did not appeal.
Gisèle allowed journalists to publish her full name and the court to exhibit explicit videos recorded by her husband showing men engaging in sexual intercourse with her while unconscious.
She has said her decisions were in solidarity with all the other women who go unrecognised as victims of sexual crimes.
‘I have decided not to be ashamed, I have done nothing wrong,’ she previously told the court. ‘They are the ones who must be ashamed.
‘I’m not expressing hatred or hate, but I am determined that things change in this society.’
Gisèle attended almost every day of the three-month court case in Avignon, south-east France, and said she decided to reveal who she was so ‘shame swaps sides’, from the victim to the rapist.
The case gained widespread international attention and sparked several protests against sexual violence, in particular sexual violence experienced by girls and women at the hands of men.
Since her trial concluded, she has remained out of the media. Her lawyer has said she’s writing a book about her experience, which she hopes to release in 2026.