Nimes, France: Lower than a yr after the landmark verdict in a drugging and rape trial that shook France and turned Gisèle Pelicot into a worldwide icon, she was greeted with applause on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) as she arrived at a courthouse for the attraction of a person difficult his conviction.
Husamettin Dogan, sentenced to 9 years in jail final December, denies he meant to rape Pelicot. He argues that he was deceived by Dominique Pelicot, Gisèle Pelicot’s ex-husband, who drugged his spouse and supplied her to strangers on-line earlier than filming the assaults.
The 44-year-old development employee went on trial on Monday in Nimes, in southern France, on fees of aggravated rape by administering substances that impair judgement or self-control, an offence carrying as much as 20 years in jail.
Gisele Pelicot arrives to an appeals court docket in Nimes, southern France, on Monday.Credit score: AP
He stays free pending the decision. Prosecutors had sought 12 years at his first trial, however the court docket imposed 9.
Carrying a pink jacket, Pelicot entered the courthouse below police escort, smiling as she shook arms with supporters who shouted “Thanks!” and different phrases of encouragement.
Within the unique proceedings, Pelicot’s ex-husband and 50 different males had been convicted of sexually assaulting her between 2011 and 2020 whereas she was below chemical submission. Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to twenty years in jail, whereas sentences for different defendants ranged from three to fifteen years imprisonment.
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The trial drew worldwide consideration after Gisèle Pelicot opposed a closed listening to, a requirement made by a number of defendants. The court docket sided together with her. The proof included stomach-churning selfmade movies of the abuse that Dominique Pelicot filmed within the couple’s residence within the small Provence city of Mazan and elsewhere.
“I’ve nothing to be ashamed of. Disgrace should change sides,” she mentioned on the trial’s opening day. After the decision, she declared she had “by no means regretted that call” and thanked supporters who gave her the “energy” to return to court docket every day.
