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Gisèle Pelicot, who survived nearly a ten years of sexual assaults by scores of men after being drugged by her former spouse, is expected to attend court in France once more this Monday. This follows one of the men found guilty of raping her launched an appeal, leading to a new hearing.

Pelicot emerged as a symbol of women's rights after opting to waive her right to privacy during the 2024 trial involving her ex-husband and numerous defendants. Her attorney, Antoine Camus, explained that while she would have preferred the stress of another trial, she will be in attendance throughout the multi-day appeal at the Nîmes court in southern France.

“Her presence is essential to make clear that a rape is a rape, that there is no such thing as a minor assault,” Camus told reporters.

Husamettin Dogan, a 44-year-old builder given to nine years in prison for raping Pelicot, has challenged his conviction. The first trial established that Dogan reached out to her then-husband through a chatroom and drove to their home the same night in June 2019, telling his own wife he was going out. He was found guilty of raping Gisèle Pelicot while she was unconscious.

Dogan claimed during the first trial that he believed it was just a game. “I am not a criminal, that’s too heavy for me to bear,” he said. His legal representative declined to comment before the appeal.

Initially, 17 of the 51 convicted men indicated they would appeal, but 16 withdrew over time, leaving only one appeal active.

Dominique Pelicot, considered one of the most notorious sex offenders in recent French memory, was handed 20 years in prison for administering drugs to his then-wife and inviting multiple men to rape her at their home in southern France over many years of marriage.

Testimony in last year’s trial disclosed that Dominique Pelicot had crushed sleeping pills and anti-anxiety medication into his wife’s mashed potato or drinks, then brought in men to assault her in the town of Mazan in the French countryside. A total of 50 other men were convicted in the case.

Now serving a prison sentence in solitary confinement, Dominique Pelicot is set to appear as a witness at the appeal. He is likely to repeat his earlier testimony: “I am a rapist and all the charged men in this room are rapists.”

Gisèle Pelicot, a 72-year-old former supply chain professional, had insisted that the first trial be held publicly to raise awareness about assault under sedation. “We should not feel ashamed, it’s for them,” she stated in court.

The case had a significant impact worldwide, with feminist organizations across all continents supporting Gisèle Pelicot and world leaders releasing statements in her support.

However, campaigners and lawyers noted that the case exposed how widespread and frequent rape and sexual violence remains.

In a separate case, a 46-year-old man in Normandy was given 12 years in prison for raping his partner while she was asleep on several occasions in 2022. Similar to Dominique Pelicot, he first came to police attention for recording up a woman’s skirt in a supermarket, and investigators later discovered videos of the assaults on his digital equipment.

The appeal in the Pelicot case takes place amid increasing criticism of the French justice system’s handling of rape. Several critical reports since the first trial have indicated that the system continues to disappoint rape victims on a large scale.

This year, the European Court of Human Rights censured France for “failing to protect” the rights of three teenagers who reported rape.

One teenager who accused more than a dozen firefighters of abuse was found to have suffered “re-traumatization and discriminatory treatment” by the French justice system, which did not act to protect her dignity “by permitting the use of moralising and guilt-inducing statements, which reinforced gender stereotypes.”

In another instance, France was found to have breached the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of a hospital pharmacist who filed a rape complaint against her supervisor.

This month, the High Council for Equality, an advisory body associated with the French prime minister’s office, reported that despite a threefold increase in rape complaints in France since the global #MeToo movement in 2016, the number of cases proceeding to trial remains dangerously low, with only 3.3% of complaints leading to convictions.

More than 130 feminist groups are advocating for sweeping reform at every level of the French justice system in addressing rape, calling for major funding increases and improved government assistance and prevention.

“This legal battle was a form of electric shock, it allowed a lot of people to talk about rape and marital rape. However, there has not really been a government action. There is a great deal lacking in France, and serious dysfunction [in the justice system],” said Anne-Cécile Mailfert of the Fondation des Femmes.

Separately, parliament is currently considering incorporating a clear legal standard of rape into French law.

Marie-Charlotte Garin, a Green MP who backs rewording the law, stated that the Pelicot case had transformed French society’s understanding of consent and that updating the legal wording would help “a cultural change to move from a tolerance of assault to a culture of consent.”

However, Garin stressed that wording alone is insufficient to address persistent “shortcomings” of the entire French state toward rape survivors. “It requires a overhaul in the system to improve how we handle rape,” she said.