In a twist of law, a woman in Germany received a longer jail term than men who gang-raped a 14-year-old girl, recorded the sexual assault on video, and urged other men to come and join.
The rape happened on September 19, 2020, during the Covid-19 lockdown when the teen girl got separated from her friends following a law enforcement raid. She was heavily drunk at that time from the party in the park, which had become a popular meeting spot during the Covid era.
While she was alone, she was gang-raped by a group of four men who took turns at her, after robbing her of her wallet and phone. After that, she was then raped again by two men, then a lone man, and finally by another group of three men who dragged her to into a bush.
The victim reported the sexual assault to the authorities but despite a mountain of evidence against her rapist – DNA from nine of the men and witness testimony about videos of the assaults, most of the rapists walked out free and unpunished.
The case was conducted by a youth chamber and the public was excluded from the proceedings because the accused were between the ages of 17 and 21 at the time.
The trial started in May, 2022 and lasted for 68 days, with the court hearing from 96 witnesses and several experts. It was reported that the first and last rapes were recorded, but that both videos were deleted shortly after and were not available to investigators.
Out of the 11 men who allegedly raped her that day, 2 were quickly acquitted due to a lack of DNA evidence, 8 were released on probation and 60 hours or community service each, and only one man got a jail term of two years and nine months.
Prosecutors had sought sentences of between one year and three months to three years for nine of the defendants, while defense lawyers sought acquittal for all 10.
Five of the rapists were German citizens and immigrants from Poland, Egypt, Libya, Kuwait, Iran, Armenia, Afghanistan, Syria, and Montenegro.
The light sentences given to the rapist who reportedly showed little remorse in court as well as the PTSD the victim now suffers ignited a public outcry in Germany.
In defense of the rapists, Psychiatrist Nahlah Saimeh, who reportedly appeared before the court as an expert witness, argued that the gang rape may have been a way the men used to vent out their “frustration” due to “migration experiences and sociocultural homelessness”.
“Disordered, unprepared migration experiences and sociocultural homelessness increase the risk of addiction and psychosis,” she said.
“Sex is also a means of venting frustration and anger, a means of warding off sadness and emptiness, and in a group of men with the same fate it also creates identity and strengthens the group feeling”, she added.
A woman got the telephone number of one of her rapists online and sent him an insulting message on Whatsapp, calling him a “dishonorable rapist pig” and a “disgusting miscarriage”. She also asked him how he managed to look at himself in the mirror and threatened him that he will “not be able to go anywhere anymore” without being beaten up.
The rapist reported the woman’s message to the police and the Judicial system through the Hamburg-Wandsbek District Court, swung into action, convicting her and sentencing her to a weekend in prison.
While she is still shocked at that, authorities in Hamburg are also investigating 140 other people for offenses related to issuing “insult, threats, or other detriment” towards the rapists.
