AP
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Less than a year after the groundbreaking verdict at the drug and rape trial that rocked France and turned Gisele Pericot into a global icon, the Court of Appeals is set to hear cases where men are challenging his beliefs.
Husamettin Dogan, who was sentenced to nine years in December last year, denied that he intended to rape Pericot. He claims he was fooled by Gisele Perricott’s ex-husband, Dominic Perricott, who drugged his wife and offered her to strangers online before filming the attack.
The 44-year-old construction worker will be brought to trial Monday on charges of rape, for controlling a substance that undermines self-control, which was a violation of a prison for up to 20 years in Nimes, southern France.
He holds the verdict and remains free. The prosecutors had sought 12 years in their first trial, but the court imposed nine years.
In the original lawsuit, Pericot’s ex-husband and 50 other men were found guilty of sexual assault between 2011 and 2020 while taking chemicals. Dominique Pericot was sentenced to 20 years in prison, with the other defendants jailing between three and 15 years in prison.
The trial attracted international attention after Gisele Pericot opposed a closure hearing, a request by several defendants. The court was on her side. The evidence included a homemade video of the abuse that Dominic Pericot shot at a couple’s home in a small town house in Mazan and elsewhere.
“There’s nothing embarrassing about it. Shame has to change the aspects,” she said on the first day of her trial. After the verdict, she declared that she “never regretted that decision” and thanked her supporters for giving them “strength” to return to court every day.
Since then, Pericot has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence, and the shocking incident has prompted the nation’s calculations against French rape culture.
Dominique Pericot acknowledged his role and did not sues his 20-year prison sentence. He is expected to testify during the appeal hearing after being involved with the remaining defendants.
Of the 51 convicted men, 17 initially filed appeals. Most of them retreated, and only Dogan pursued his appeal.
Last year’s trial was extended for four months, but a retrial is expected to continue within four days, with a verdict expected on Thursday.
The civil lawsuit in Avignon is scheduled for November to resolve damages incurred on the main victim and her family, for the convicted man to jointly pay.
