A French appeals court has handed a longer 10-year sentence to the only man to challenge his conviction for raping Gisele Pelicot while she was drugged and unconscious.
Construction worker Husamettin Dogan, 44, was the only one of 51 men convicted last December in the harrowing mass rape trial to appeal against his verdict.
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The trial was covered around the world and turned Ms Pelicot into a global icon after she opposed a closed hearing – a demand made by several defendants. The court sided with her.
Those convicted included Dominique Pelicot, Ms Pelicot’s ex-husband, who knocked her unconscious by lacing her food and drink with drugs before offering her to strangers he met online between 2011 and 2020, filming their assaults.
Ms Pelicot and her son Florian in the courtroom. Pic: AP
Dogan had been sentenced to nine years in prison in the initial trial.
He was tried on charges of aggravated rape by administering substances that impair judgement or self-control, which could have been punished by up to 20 years in prison.
The prosecutor in the appeal case in Nimes, southern France, asked for a 12-year sentence, French media reported.
“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, according to Le Monde newspaper.
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Dogan had denied he intended to rape Ms Pelicot and claimed he was deceived by her husband.
Dominique Pelicot was found guilty on all charges and sentenced to the maximum 20 years in prison after admitting his role. He did not appeal.
Husband filmed assaults
Sentences for the other convicted men, who were found guilty of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault, ranged from three to 15 years in prison.
One of them was also convicted of drugging and raping his own wife with Dominique Pelicot’s help.
Evidence presented at the trial included horrific videos of rapes and assaults Dominique Pelicot filmed in the couple’s home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.
In November, civil proceedings in the southern French city of Avignon are due to settle damages owed to Ms Pelicot and her family, to be paid jointly by the convicted men.
Ms Pelicot has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence, and the case has spurred a national reckoning over rape culture in France.
