Sawt Falasteen - Only man to appeal in Gisele Pelicot case says not a 'rapist'

Last year, the 44-year-old was sentenced to nine years in prison for raping Gisele Pelicot after her then husband invited him online to abuse her. Dogan argues that he was misled into believing she had consented.

Dogan was one of 51 men found guilty of sexual abuse at Dominique Pelicot's invitation, in a trial that shocked the world.

Among the 17 who filed an appeal, he is the only one still maintaining it.

Dominique Pelicot has not appealed his 20-year prison sentence for drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of strangers to abuse her in her own bed over almost a decade.

But Dogan -- who was born in Turkey, grew up in poverty and is the father of a child with Down syndrome -- maintains he is innocent.

Dogan's defence team said he plans to appeal against both his criminal responsibility and the sentence during the trial in the southern city of Nimes from Monday to Thursday.

"He maintains that he never went to the couple's home with the intention of raping anyone," one of his lawyers, Jean-Marc Darrigade, told AFP.

"He is deeply affected by the fact that he could be labelled as a rapist."

- 'Trapped him' -

Dogan's fight is not with the main plaintiff, 72-year-old Gisele Pelicot, whom he "respects deeply", Darrigade said.

Instead, it is with Dominique Pelicot, "the cynical man who trapped him".

Dogan, who has arthritis and appeared at the first trial using a walking stick, is technically still a free man as his appeal has put his prison sentence on hold.

"I'm not a rapist," the construction worker said during the first trial.

"This is too much for me to bear. He's her husband. I never thought that guy could do this to his wife."

Dogan visited the Pelicot family home once, in June 2019.

During the first trial, he was at first not prepared to accept the charges against him.

He said Dominique Pelicot sent him a message saying he was part of a sexually adventurous couple and they were seeking someone to take part in sex while his wife "pretended to sleep".

He says he received a message, supposedly from Gisele Pelicot, saying she agreed to him coming over.

- 'It was rape' -

Dogan headed over to their home in the small southern town of Mazan that same evening, where he was led into the main bedroom.

"I started foreplay, I saw she didn't react. I said, 'She's dead, your wife.' (Dominique Pelicot) said, 'No, you're imagining it.' He penetrated her and she lifted up her head a little," he said.

Dogan said they continued for at least half an hour, until he clearly heard Gisele Pelicot snoring. He then decided to leave, he said.

Reminded by one of the judges of the definition of rape -- an act committed "through violence, constraint, threat or surprise" -- he initially conceded.

"I admit it was rape," he said.

But at the end of the trial in the southern town of Avignon, Dogan again said he was not a rapist.

His lawyer said the appeal hearing would give his client more time to present his case.

"They found that Mrs Pelicot was being controlled" by her then husband, he said.

"Can't we also conceive something similar for the few minutes during which Dogan faced this exceptionally perverse man who mastered all tricks of persuasion?

"I don't think it's offensive to discuss it a second time," said Darrigade.

Z.AlNajjar--SF-PST