A German court delivered its verdict Tuesday concerning those responsible for the barbaric September 2020 gang-rape of a 15-year-old German girl in the northern city of Hamburg.
Of the eleven men initially charged in relation to the gang-rape of the minor — only four of whom were technically German — two were acquitted. Nine were found guilty. Eight got probation, not exceeding two years. Only one is headed to prison.
There has been significant backlash following the release of eight convicted rapists, prompting officials to condemn critiques of the judgment, particularly those of an “anti-migrant” nature.
Spiegel reported that the victim attended a party on the festival lawn in Hamburg’s over 350-acre city park on Sept. 19, 2020. Four of the men dragged the girl, then intoxicated, into a bush and raped her. One of the rapists added insult to grievous injury and stole her phone and wallet.
Two other men then joined in, raping the victim. After the initial series of attacks, the victim reportedly began stumbling away, right into the arms of yet another rapist from the pack.
The rapist who intercepted her near the festival meadow was then joined by three additional rapists, who are suspected to have all similarly sexually assaulted the victim. Owing to the uncertainty about whether the final three all raped the victim, one rapist was acquitted.
The brutal gang rape lasted nearly three hours. According to German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung, after her violent dehumanization, the victim managed to get onto a train.
However, her aggressors, understanding that she was traveling alone, followed her. Fortunately, she fled to a group of people who “recognized her condition and called the police.”
DNA evidenced implicated nine of the rapists. There was also video evidence, but Spiegel indicated that the footage was “irretrievably deleted shortly after the crime” such that neither investigators nor the court could confirm what genetic evidence made abundantly clear.
An eleventh defendant charged with aiding and abetting and filming the rape was acquitted earlier this year. While four of the rapists were allegedly of German nationality, another four reportedly had Afghan, Kuwaiti, Armenian, and Montenegrin nationalities.
The Morgenpost Verlag GmbH indicated one was born in Iran, another in Libya, and a third in Egypt. The court has not indicated the nationality of two of the rapists. (READ MORE)
