Sentenced to 10 years in prison – one year more than the first degree sentence – the only man who had appealed among the 50 convicted of raping Gisèle Pélicot, the French woman who for years was drugged and sedated by her husband and made available to dozens of strangers to rape her.
Found guilty of sexual assault and rape committed under the influence of chemical substances, like the other 49 defendants, the 44-year-old – who attacked the victim on the night between 28 and 29 June 2019 – but had denied having had intentions of violence, claiming to have been “manipulated” by the woman’s ex-husband, Dominique Pélicot. In front of the Nîmes Court, Gisele reiterated the accusations against Dogan, asking him to “take responsibility” for his actions.
During the appeal process, the investigators presented a video that contradicts the accused’s version: the man remained in the house for at least three hours and twenty-four minutes, not half an hour as stated, and the video portrays him abusing an unconscious Gisele. Unlike the first trial, in which the verdict was issued by a panel of judges, this time it was a popular jury made up of five men and four women who decided Dogan’s fate.
From 2011 to 2020, Dominique Pelicot gave his wife tranquilizers and sleeping pills without her knowledge, crushed them, and added them to her food and drinks, causing her to lose her memory and pass out.
Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband, found guilty, among other things, of aggravated rape, received a twenty-year sentence, the maximum sentence provided for by French law. All the defendants were also found guilty by the court, the vast majority of them for aggravated rape (they received sentences ranging from 3 to 15 years in prison).
