It was the same criminal investigator, the same medical expert and the same perpetrator-turned-witness, wearing the same gray jacket.
In separate accounts, they told an appeals court how Gisèle Pelicot had been drugged by her husband at the time, Dominique Pelicot, then raped by him and many other men, at his invitation.
Ms. Pelicot allowed a mass rape trial centering on what happened to her to be open to the public last year, awakening a huge conversation in France and forceing some important changes in the country. But time seemed to stand still in the courtroom on Tuesday, the second day of an appeal by one of the men convicted in that trial, Husamettin Dogan, 44. He was among 51 men convicted in the first trial, including Mr. Pelicot, though not all for rape.
Aurore Perez, 41, a feminist activist who attended much of last year’s trial in Avignon, was once again in the crowd singing and applauding outside the Court of Appeal in Nimes, when Ms. Pelicot, now 72, left for the day. “I have the feeling I’m living the same nightmare,” Ms. Perez said. “We are sick of hearing the same story.”
Most of the men who were convicted of raping Ms. Pelicot when she was in a near-coma-like state were sentenced to three to 15 years in prison. Mr. Pelicot is serving a 20-year prison term in isolation.
Mr. Dogan, who is married and is the main caregiver for his severely handicapped older son, told the court during his brief appearance on the stand on Monday that he never intended to rape Ms. Pelicot and that he learned only after his arrest that she had been drugged.
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