France: Gisele Pelicot to face court again due to appeal

One of the men found guilty of sexually abusing Gisele Pelicot is set to appear in court in the southern French city of Nimes.

Husamettin D. was sentenced to nine years in prison for rape. He claims that Pelicot's then-husband, Dominique, led him to believe that she had consented.

The 44-year-old argues he is innocent, with his legal team appealing both his conviction and the sentence. He visited the Pelicot home once in 2019.

He is one of 17 men who appealed their conviction and the last one still maintaining his innocence.

In total, 51 men were convicted in the trial that sent waves all around the world.

Dominique Pelicot was sentenced to 20 years in jail for drugging his wife and recruiting dozens of strangers to abuse her over almost a decade.

What does D. argue?

Facing court in his first trial, the construction worker said he is not a rapist, claiming that Dominique Pelicot had sent him a message saying that he and his wife were sexually adventurous and looking for someone to have sex with her while she "pretended to sleep."

He also said that he had received a message supposedly from Gisele Pelicot saying that she had agreed to him coming over.

According to the 44-year-old, he told Dominique Pelicot that his wife had been "dead" because she did not react while he was in the couple's bed. The husband replied that D. was "imagining."

He then continued for another half an hour, but decided to leave once he heard Gisele Pelicot snoring.

After being reminded by the judge of the legal definition of rape — an act committed "through violence, constraint, threat of surprise — D. accepted the act was rape, though he insisted that he was not a rapist.

"This is too much for me to bear," he said, adding that he "never thought [Dominique Pelicot] could do this to his wife."

According to one of his lawyers, D. is "deeply affected" by the prospect of being labelled a rapist.

"He maintains that he never went to the couple's home with the intention of raping anyone," one of his lawyers told AFP, insisting that the 44-year-old's issue is not with Gisele Pelicot, whom he "respects deeply," but with her then-husband Dominique, "the cynical man who trapped him."

What does Gisele Pelicot say about the appeal?

Gisele Pelicot gave up her right to anonymity, with her conduct throughout the trial making her a feminist hero.

According to one of her lawyers, while the 72-year-old would have been happy to give up on the "ordeal" of facing court once again, she understands the attention given to her case, which has "universal significance."

Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko

Editor's note: DW follows the German press code, which stresses the importance of protecting the privacy of suspected criminals or victims and obliges us to refrain from revealing full names in such cases.