(Reuters) -A French court on Thursday rejected the appeal of a former construction worker found guilty last year of the aggravated rape of Gisele Pelicot, and increased his prison sentence by a year to 10 years, his lawyer said.
Husamettin Dogan was the only one of 51 men convicted in last year’s harrowing mass rape trial, which stunned France and attracted worldwide attention, to appeal against his guilty verdict.
Pelicot’s husband, Dominique Pelicot, drugged her over nearly a decade, recruiting dozens of men online to rape her while she was unconscious. All of the Frenchman’s 50 co-defendants were found guilty of rape, attempted rape or sexual assault.
Gisele Pelicot, 72, emerged as a prominent feminist figure in France and abroad after waiving her right to anonymity and testifying against her alleged abusers in court — a move that turned the trial into a broader reckoning over the prevalence of sexual violence.
She returned to court in the southern city of Nimes this week to face Dogan.
Dogan’s lawyer Sylvie Menvielle told Reuters ahead of the appeal that her client believed he was participating in a libertine threesome and he did not know at the time that Gisele Pelicot had not given her consent.
In French criminal law, intent is crucial in assessing guilt.
Menvielle said her client accepted the court’s ruling.
(Reporting by Alban Kacher; Editing by Richard Lough, William Maclean)
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