French court increases sentence to 10 years for man who raped Gisèle Pelicot in landmark case

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LYON, France (AP) — A French appeals court handed a stiffer 10-year sentence Thursday to the only man who challenged his conviction for raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was drugged and unconscious.

Husamettin Dogan, a 44-year-old construction worker, had been sentenced to nine years in prison in the first drugging-and-rape trial last year that riveted France and turned Pelicot into a global icon against sexual violence. The appeals jury was composed of three judges as well as 9 ordinary citizens. The first trial that gave Dogan a lesser sentence was heard by five judges.

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.”

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 offense punishable by up to 20 years in prison. The prosecutor in the appeal case asked for a 12-year sentence, French media reported from the courthouse in Nimes, southern France.

"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.

Dogan had denied that he intended to rape Pelicot and argued that he was deceived 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.

Sentences ranged from three to 15 years imprisonment for the other convicted men. One of them was convicted of drugging and raping his own wife with Dominique Pelicot’s help.

The trial drew international attention after Gisèle Pelicot opposed a closed hearing, a demand made by several defendants. The court sided with her. Her courage inspired campaigners against sexual and sexist violence and the shocking case spurred a national reckoning over rape culture in France.

The evidence included stomach-churning homemade videos of rapes and assaults that Dominique Pelicot filmed in the couple’s home in the small Provence town of Mazan and elsewhere.

Civil proceedings in the southern French city of Avignon are due in November to settle damages owed to Gisèle Pelicot and her family, to be paid jointly by the convicted men.

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AP journalist John Leicester in Paris contributed.