18 Sex Assaults in Innsbruck NYE But Questions About Cologne

Innsbruck women suffered at least 18 sex attacks amid New Year festivities

© Dominic Ebenbichler / Reuters

Austrian authorities are investigating an unprecedented number of sexual assaults that occurred on New Year’s Eve in the western city of Innsbruck. Eighteen women have so far reported being groped by a crowd of “individuals.”

A group of around 10 unidentified individuals carried out the sexual assaults on young women at Innsbruck’s main square where around 25,000 people gathered on New Year’s Eve, senior police official Ernst Kranebitter said, according to The Local.

“We’ve not had anything like this happen here before,” Kranebitter added, as quoted by AFP. 

Get used to it Ernst, it's the new normal!

“They were dancing around the victims and then suddenly grabbed their breast or stuck their hands between their legs. That’s what made it hard for others to notice what was going on – it all happened amid festivities.”

The attackers have been described as young people in their late teens, according to Kranebitter.

Poor quality amateur video of the assaults hasn’t been of help to investigators.

The incident is reminiscent of last year’s sexual attacks in the German city of Cologne carried out by a group of men allegedly of Arab and North African descent. In that incident, authorities failed to identify all of the assailants.

Does this make sense to you?

A German police report from November revealed that a total of 881 sexual offences involving over 1,231 women were committed last year in Cologne.

881 sexual offences involving 1231 women! How can there be 350 more women than sexual offences. Apparently, if you assault two women at the same time, that is only one assault! One is a freebee. Another source says 2000 men were involved. Wouldn't that insinuate that 2000 sexual assaults had occurred. If not, what were the other 1119 men doing? I can only conclude that if 5 men grab the same girl, that is counted as one sex assault not 5. This is called 'cooking the books'.

This appears to be another example of European police still under-playing the dangers to girls and women created by migrants. That is the biggest criminal act here.

Ahead of New Year celebrations, police in Austria’s capital Vienna distributed 6,000 “anti-rape” pocket alarms in a bid to step up security and help prevent such incidents. The gadgets emit a shrill sound to deter potential offenders and call for police if needed.

Austria also increased police presence on the streets ahead of the New Year’s festivities following the terror attack at a Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, on 19 December which claimed lives of 12 people and injured 56 more. Austrian Interior Minister Wolfgang Sobotka said in December that Austria was well prepared for any attacks, though it was impossible to provide “100 percent security”.

Apart from Germany, Sweden, Austria, Finland, and Switzerland also reported a number of sex attacks last year.

Amazingly, very few reports exist from Europe this year. Innsbruck makes it clear that assaults are still happening and perhaps increasing, but there seems to be a blanket of silence over the rest of Europe. Is that coming from the police, the governments, the media, the EU? It's a disgrace whoever is responsible for it. European women and girls need more protection than migrant boys and men with no self-control.

5 Afghan Refugees Detained in Austria Following Sexual Assaults

The new normal in Europe

Police in northern Austria have detained five migrants from Afghanistan over accusations of sexually harassing women during a wine festival in the city of Wels. The mayor demanded “zero tolerance” in the wake of the alleged assaults.

According to various Austrian media outlets, police said five Afghan asylum seekers were detained Sunday over links to the sexual assaults, which were said to have happened early Saturday.

Four of the alleged perpetrators appeared to be unaccompanied teenage refugees, aged between 15 and 16, while the fifth is 22 years old. “An assailant aged 15 was identified by one of the victims and accused of” sexually harassing her, DiePresse reports.

According to police, the affected women, eight so far, have reported that the group of assailants included at least two more males. Law enforcers are currently checking this information, while calling on potential victims and eyewitnesses to forward any information to police.

The assaults in Wels happened in a packed celebration tent during a wine festival. “The women reported that the men held them and grabbed between their legs,” Nachrichten.at cited police as saying.

In the aftermath of the incident, at least three women immediately filed legal complaints against the suspects. Reacting to the assaults, Wels’s mayor Andreas Rabl demanded “zero tolerance” for such cases in a post on his Facebook page.

“Zero tolerance and full consequences for the perpetrators,” Rabl wrote, adding that his hometown should not turn into a “greater district for refugees.”

Meanwhile, another case of sexual assault during the same festival happened early Sunday, according to Austrian media. A 23-year-old Iraqi refugee was questioned by police after a woman reported she was grabbed by the man at around 5 a.m. local time on Sunday at the festival. The refugee was later set free.

The organizers of Wels’s wine festival issued an apology in the wake of Saturday’s assaults, while also beefing up security.

“We deeply regret the incident during the last night. Our top priority remains the security of the festival’s guests,” the statement reads, as quoted by DiePresse.

Last year, a man identified as Amir. A., an asylum seeker from Iraq, raped a 10-year-old boy at a swimming pool in Vienna. After the attack, the man claimed to police it was a “sexual emergency.” The assailant was then sentenced to six years in prison for sexual abuse and the rape of a minor.

The most striking case of sexual harassment by refugees occurred however across the border in Germany last year.

Back then hundreds of women said they were harassed by attackers of “North African or Middle Eastern appearances” on 2016 New Year’s Eve near the central railway station in Cologne. Similar cases were also reported in other German cities, including Hamburg.

According to the latest figures, published by Die Welt, police registered over 1,200 legal complaints, with at least half of them citing sexual assaults. Law enforcers identified 281 suspects, mostly coming from Tunisia, Morocco, Syria and other Arab countries, while adding that several dozen Germans were also among them. 

Would that be Germans with Arab or African heritage? Would they be Muslims?

At least 22 perpetrators were convicted and received minor money penalties or a maximum of a year in prison.

The case sparked massive outrage across Germany and triggered numerous protests, with people lambasting Chancellor Merkel’s open-door policy toward refugees.

In July, the German parliament unanimously passed a tougher new law on sex offenses, making any form of non-consensual sexual contact a crime and easing the deportation procedure for migrants involved in sex assaults.

38 Reports of Sexual Assault at Music Festival in Sweden

They're at it again in Sweden

© Stockholms Kulturfestival / Facebook

Police in Sweden are investigating 38 reported sexual assaults at an annual teen music festival in Stockholm, local media report.

One of the cases was initially believed to be a rape, however, after reviewing the claim, police have reclassified it.

“Initial analysis gave the impression that a rape had taken place. After conducting a number of interviews and investigative work, we are now treating the case as a sexual assault,” Kjell Lindgren of the Stockholm Police told Swedish TT news agency on Saturday.

“Laying hands (on someone) is considered a sexual assault, any more than that and we consider it a (possible) rape,” Lindgren added, as quoted by Local.

Eighty-nine people were ordered to leave the grounds where the We are Sthlm festival was being held, and some were detained by police for public disorder.

By Friday, police had already received 17 reports of sexual assault, along with others complaining of assault, vandalism, violence against officials, and unlawful use of knives. On Saturday, TT news agency cited security sources as saying that a total of 38 complaints had been made.

No word on the probable nationalities of the perpetrators, but I think we can all take an educated guess.

The We are Sthlm festival had already earned notoriety for similar reasons, when Dagens Nyheter paper discovered that 38 complaints of rape or sexual assault had been filed after the events in 2014 and 2015.

After the story broke, Swedish police came under sharp criticism for allegedly covering up the assaults that had reportedly been committed by Afghan migrants. Prosecutors refused to look into the accusations, however.

I know some Swedes and they are fairly intelligent people. You would never guess that by what the police and the government is doing in protecting migrants and throwing Swedish girls to the wolves.

Those headlines appeared as accusations were being voiced in the aftermath of a similar situation in the German city of Cologne, where asylum seekers were reportedly involved in a string of sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve.

Last month, the Bravalla Festival, Sweden’s biggest, was also blighted by sexual assaults. More than 17 women lodged complaints during that event, including five cases of rape, with three victims under 15. The headliner of the festival, the folk-rock band Mumford & Sons, boycotted the event following the reports.

Over 2,000 Men Assaulted German Women on NYE, Police Identified 120 - Leaked Report

© Reuters

At least 2,000 men sexually harassed women on New Year’s Eve across Germany, but it will be impossible to track them all down, police said, adding that the attacks have been linked to mass migration.

Police said there were cases involving over 1,200 women, adding that apart from Cologne, sexual harassment was reported in Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Stuttgart and other cities across Germany.

The report from the Federal Office of Criminal Investigations (BKA) was seen by Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and broadcasters NDR and WDR.

According to the report, at least 642 crimes of a purely sexual nature were reported in Germany. Plus, police registered 239 other “combined crimes” that involved both sexual assault and theft.

Of the 2,000 alleged attackers, only 120 have been identified so far, according to police reports. Many of the attacks were carried out in large groups.

“We need to assume that many of the perpetrators will not be investigated,” BKA President Holger Münch said, as cited by the paper.

According to police estimates, most of the identified offenders came from North Africa and over a half of the attackers had spent less than a year in Germany.

"In this respect, there is a connection between the occurrence of the phenomenon and the strong levels of immigration in 2015," Münch said, adding that there was no evidence the attacks had been somehow organized.

Not being organized means that this is a way of life for many Muslim men. Changing that mind-set is not going to be easy. Germany has changed because of the threat of sexual violence against girls and women, and that change is directly related to the migration of Muslims. It will only get worse before it gets better, if it gets better.

Cologne was the city where the majority of women were sexually abused - some 650, followed by Hamburg where over 400 women suffered, a police report said.

Since January 2016, the scandal of asylum seekers reportedly sexually harassing local women has been gathering momentum. Many of the victims, apart from being sexually harassed, said they were robbed.

In April, the latest report by the local branch of the German Interior Ministry said that almost all the suspects involved in the Cologne New Year attacks were from outside Germany, and two-thirds of them came from Morocco or Algeria.

In June, two men were found guilty of sexual assault on New Year’s Eve in Cologne and were given probationary sentences. The court said it was evident that one man, named as Hussein A., kissed a young woman against her will. Another man, an Algerian national, was a part of a group that sexually harassed women.

German media reported that two more men were found guilty of sexual assault charges in Düsseldorf and Nürtingen.

An overwhelming 1.1 million asylum seekers came to the country in 2015, and Germans are concerned about the future: 81 percent of the country’s citizens say the migrant crisis is “out of control” under Chancellor Angela Merkel’s authority, according to a February poll.

German Rape Laws Enter the 21st Century

‘No means no’: Germany toughens sex crime laws

 in light of Cologne attacks

The Reichstag building © Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

The German parliament has unanimously passed a tougher new law on sex offenses, making any form of non-consensual sexual contact a crime and easing the deportation procedure for migrants involved in sex assaults.

The legislation, dubbed “no means no,” covers cases in which a victim withheld consent but did not physically resist the sexual attack. Under the new law, courts should take into account circumstances in which victims did not resist because they were incapacitated, taken by surprise or threatened with greater violence if they objected sexual contact.

Previously, the law required victims to prove that they not only objected to the offender’s advances but also physically resisted an assault before any charges for sex crimes could be brought. According to advocates of the new law, such a situation led to the underreporting of sex assaults in Germany.

"In the past there were cases where women were raped but the perpetrators couldn't be punished," said Manuela Schwesig, the German federal minister of family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth.

"The change in the law will help increase the number of victims who choose to press charges, lower the number of criminal prosecutions that are shelved and ensure sexual assaults are properly punished," she added, as quoted by AP.

According to German Justice Minister Heiko Maas, only one in 10 rapes is reported in Germany and just 8 percent of rape trials result in convictions, AP reports.

That means less than 1% of rapes in Germany result in a conviction. 

The law is also aimed at bringing German legislation in line with that of other developed countries and at closing the holes in what some lawmakers defined as an extremely lax legislation.

Preceded by years of heated discussion within the German justice system and fierce debates in parliament, the new law was eventually approved in view of the Cologne sex attacks on New Year’s Eve 2015, which provoked public indignation and sparked a fresh discussion of the issue of sexual violence in Germany.

All 601 lawmakers who took part in the debate on the law voted for it. The MPs gave a standing ovation as the law passed the German parliament’s lower house.

Entitled ‘Improving the protection of sexual self-determination,’ the law makes it easier to deport migrant sex offenders, classifies groping as a sex crime punishable with sentences of up to two years in jail, and envisages stricter punitive measures in cases of sexual assault committed by groups.

Now, any sexual crime conviction can be used against an asylum seeker or migrant in processing their application.

So that means that previously rape charges couldn't be used in the processing of an asylum seeker or migrant? Seriously!?

In January, the German parliament already toughened the regulations concerning deportation of migrants and refugees convicted of crimes. However, at that time, it required proof of “violence, threats or physical endangerment” along with sexual crime, as well as a prison sentence of at least one year for an offender to be deported.

Good grief! It obviously wasn't used very much.

The new law also makes it illegal for a person to be a part of a group involved in sexual assault, even if that person did not directly participate in the attack. Anyone "who at least tacitly accepts that crimes are committed by a group they are a part of" can now be prosecuted, the legislation says, as quoted by AFP.

This stipulation, which is apparently aimed at dealing with incidents similar to the Cologne sex attacks, provoked criticism from some opposition lawmakers, who branded it unconstitutional and populist.

“The success is accompanied by a bitter aftertaste, which indulges a post-Cologne populism,” said Cornelia Moehring from the Left Party.

Numerous allegations of sexual assaults reported in Cologne on New Year’s Eve sparked a huge wave of public indignation and criticism directed against the German authorities.

In particular, German police were heavily criticized for their perceived lack of activity during New Year’s Eve celebrations in the city as well as for their poor investigations into the crimes. Cologne Police Chief Wolfgang Albers was forced to resign a week after the incident.

In the city of Cologne alone, 1,049 people were victims of attacks allegedly committed by men from North Africa and the Middle East on New Year's Eve, with about 821 complaints being filed to police. Exactly 482 of the complaints reported sexual assaults, Die Welt reported on January 21.

On Thursday, a German court brought the first guilty verdicts on the Cologne attacks. An Iraqi and an Algerian were found guilty of committing sex offenses by a Cologne court and were handed one-year probationary sentences, German media report.

Wahoo! That should teach them!

NYE Rapists Were Refugees: Prosecutor Slams Reports Exonerating Migrants as ‘Total Nonsense’

By Simon Tomlinson for MailOnline

Hostile: Crowds of people outside Cologne train station on New Year’s Eve when women were subjected to mass sex attacks and robberies by gangs of migrants. The city’s prosecutor said the ‘overwhelming majority’ of the 73 suspects identified were refugees, rubbishing reports that only three were migrants

German prosecutors have rubbished as ‘total nonsense’ reports that only three of the 73 suspects in the Cologne New Year’s Eve mass attacks were migrants.

Cologne prosecutor Ulrich Bremer said most of those accused in a series of robberies and sexual assaults were in fact refugees.

Mr Bremer said ‘the overwhelming majority of persons fall into the general category of refugees.’

He said 73 suspects have so far been identified, of whom 12 are linked to sex attacks.

Some entered Germany saying they wanted to apply for asylum, while others have formally filed an application.

Among the 15 suspects who are in custody is a Moroccan asylum-seeker who entered Germany in November.

A total of 1,075 criminal complaints have been filed, including 467 alleging crimes of a sexual nature ranging from insults to rape.

Police are also dealing with nearly 700 reported crimes during the week-long carnival in Cologne earlier this month, with more than 400 people taken into custody.

There were around 45 reports of sexual assaults, including one which sparked a fight after a migrant was accused of groping a 19-year-old woman.

More than a dozen people became involved in the brawl after the 36-year-old North African man allegedly grabbed the woman’s bottom.

Cologne prosecutor Ulrich Bremer said 73 suspects have so far been identified, with 12 linked to sex attacks

Three people were treated in hospital and the migrant was arrested and charged with bodily harm.

One witness said one of those involved drew a knife.

Police said the number of sexual offence complaints almost quadrupled at this year’s carnival despite heightened security.

A total of 66 complaints for sexual insults or aggression have been lodged compared to 18 such reports the previous year.

More than 2,000 officers had been deployed for the event, which attracted a million visitors.

The migrant crisis was reflected in the carnival floats with one featuring a caricature of Chancellor Angela Merkel in front of her signature quote ‘We will manage it’ and the words ‘tough nuts’.

At her side was a basket of nuts labelled ‘refugees’.

Mrs Merkel’s popularity has slumped after being accused of mishandling the crisis.

She has been criticised for her open-door approach that saw more than a million people claim asylum there last year.

143 Bodily Harm Offences, Including 22 Sexual Assaults Reported at Cologne Carnival

Cologne 2.0 just 5 weeks after New Years Eve mayhem

Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker takes part in the "Weiberfastnacht" (Women's Carnival) celebrations in Cologne, Germany February 4, 2016. © Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters

Despite heightened security, 143 incidents, including 22 sexual assaults have been reported during the first night of the annual Carnival in Cologne. Up to 2,000 police officers were on alert during the celebrations, twice the number deployed last year.

Of the 22 sexual assaults, two reported on Friday were called “serious,” according to the DPA news agency. Among the two victims was a Belgian female journalist, who was groped while reporting. The second victim was attacked on her way home and apparently raped, police said. 11 policemen were slightly injured defending themselves.

In addition to incidents of bodily harm, 30 thefts were also reported at the festival.

The number of sexual offences more than doubled compared to the Carnival in 2015, police said. During last year’s carnival only nine sex crimes were reported.

The rise in the number of sexual complaints might be attributed to the women’s “willingness” to report incidents, Michael Temme Cologne's police director said. He explained the rise may have been influenced by the sexual assaults reported in Cologne at New Year’s Eve, when hundreds of women were harassed.

"I don't want to play that down, but that shows that the willingness of women to report has changed," Michael Temme Cologne's police director said as quoted by Deutche Welle.

The sexual assaults in Cologne sparked wariness in Europe and resulted in even greater anti-migrant sentiment after it emerged that most suspects were men of Arab or North African origin. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has recently started to change her pro-refugee rhetoric and said that asylum seekers are expected to return home once conflicts in their homelands are resolved.

Over 1,200 Victims of NYE Assaults Across Germany – State Interior Minister

© Wolfgang Rattay / Reuters

More than 1,200 people fell victim to attacks on New Year’s Eve in four German cities with more than a half of them suffering from sexual assaults, State Interior Minister Ralf Jager said in his report to the regional parliament.

The number of criminal complaints linked to the wave of crimes on New Year’s Eve in the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia exceeded 1,200, according to the regional interior ministry’s provisional report on the investigation process presented in the regional parliament by Jager on Thursday.

So far, the total number of identified suspects amounts to 52 people, the overwhelming majority of whom “are not German citizens,”Jager said.

In the city of Cologne alone, 1049 people have become victims of the attacks committed allegedly by men from North Africa and the Middle East with about 821 complaints being filed to police. Exactly 482 of the complaints reported sexual assaults, Die Welt reports.

30 suspects have been identified by police in relation to this wave of crimes with 25 of them from Morocco and Algeria. 15 suspects are asylum-seekers, including two unaccompanied minors. According to police, none of them were Cologne residents and eleven people were living in Germany illegally.

Most of the alleged offenders are suspected of committing thefts robberies and receiving stolen goods with only six of them being actually linked to sex crimes, German media reported citing police sources.

However, only seven suspects have been detained and put in pretrial detention facilities.

This is pretty disappointing. Only 7 detained and only 6 linked to sex crimes while there were at least 600 sexual assaults reported. I trust the German police will do much better than that in time.

In the city of Dusseldorf, more than 100 complaints have been filed to police with about 70 of them reporting sexual attacks. In the cities of Dortmund and Bielfeld, dozens of similar crimes, including sexual assaults were also committed allegedly by men from the Middle East and North Africa with police mentioning people from Iraq, Iran, Syria and Afghanistan as well as from Albania and Bangladesh.

“Police faced a previously unknown phenomenon, when groups of young men, who are [refugees and migrants], show absolutely no respect to women and deliberately breach socially acceptable distances,” Jager commented on the provisional results of investigation presented in the report, as quoted by Die Welt.

Previously German Justice Minister Heiko Maas said that the attacks could have been planned stressing that about 1000 migrants and refugees could not just accidentally gather at one place, especially in the light of crimes they allegedly committed.

The report provoked a new wave of criticism of police and regional interior ministry. In response, Jager defended the actions of police officers as well as the actions of the ministry.

“[Police] made no mistakes [on New Year’s Eve], they were prepared but eventually they were outnumbered and could not cope with the uncontrollable situation,” he said as quoted by the Rheinische Post.

Doesn't that mean they were NOT prepared? If they were prepared, there would have been enough police on stand-by to be able to control the situation.

“[Regional] police department reacted immediately as soon as the scale of attacks [on New Year’s Eve] became known through the complaints [filed to the police],” he added, as quoted by Die Welt.

Jager also stressed that his ministry could make a real assessment of the situation only several days after the attacks took place in Cologne and other cities due to the ever growing number of complaints, thus dismissing the accusations of information hiding.

“The ministry has nothing to conceal. Everything should be put on the table,” he said, as quoted by the Rheinische Post.

At the same time, some lawmakers met these comments with skepticism. Marc Lurbke from the liberal Free Democratic Party doubted that people still trust authorities pointing out that people’s guards are being organized in some towns.

He also accused Jager of inconsistency by saying that “previously [Jager] held police fully responsible for the New Year’s Eve [attacks]” and “now [he] defends police.”

Earlier, North Rhine-Westphalia police was strongly criticized for both inactivity on New Year’s Eve and their poor investigation of the crimes. Cologne Police chief Wolfgang Albers has resigned a week after the incident while Chancellor Angle Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union proposed stricter penalties for migrants who committed crimes – including speeding up their deportation process.

Germany was not the only country that witnessed a wave of sexual assaults on New Year’s Eve as similar crimes were reported in Austria, Switzerland and Finland with Swedish police earlier being accused of covering-up sex crimes reportedly committed by refugee youths.

3 More Cities in Sweden Report Mass Sexual Assaults on NYE

Gangs of young men, presumably migrants, assaulted women in Swedish Malmö, Karlstad and Kalmar on New Year’s Eve, local media has revealed, citing police. The news emerged after Swedish police were accused of ignoring sexual harassment at a Stockholm music festival.

People are silhouetted as they walk past the main railway station in Cologne,
Germany © Wolfgang 

Several groups of eight to ten unattended migrant youths, some of them presumably from Afghanistan, molested drunk women on New Year’s night in Malmö, Sydsvenskan newspaper reported. According to Malmö officer Håkan Johansson, the criminals left immediately upon spotting police cars.

A few such cases were reportedly prevented in other areas of the city, such as King’s park and Central Station, before any serious harm was done to the victims. It has not been reported whether any of the women have filed official complaints. The officer claims that this type of gang harassment is new to Malmö.

Young girls in Karlstad also fell victim to groups of adolescent migrants on New Year’s night. Several girls sought refuge with the police, Värmland Folkblad (VF) reports.

Police spokesman Tommy Lindh claims that the incidents occurring on New Year’s eve were of a significantly smaller scale than those which took place at the “We are Sthlm” musical festival last summer. Karlstad police urge those who suffered assaults by young refugees to report them immediately.

The city of Kalmar also witnessed attacks on women on New Year’s Eve, Expressen reports. Police have urged people to submit photos and videos from that night that might help identify assailants. Only four reports of abuse were received following the celebrations, but police believe there could be more cases.

“We realized that there were many unreported cases and urged more people to make complaints,” Johan Bruun, spokesperson for police in Kalmar said.

The reports have come to light shortly after allegations that similar sexual harassment has taken place at Stockholm music festivals. Police officers have been accused of standing aside and ignoring molestation at the “We Are Sthlm” events of 2014 and 2015. Youths are reported to have harassed girls as young as 11 or 12 years old by “rubbing themselves against them.”

Stefan Löfven, Sweden’s Prime Minister, has called the underreported cases of molestation “a double betrayal” of the women involved and has ordered police to investigate alleged cases of sexual harassment that may have taken place at public events over the past two summers.

The gang assaults in Sweden on New Year’s Eve appear to be similar to attacks that took place in the German city Cologne, where more than 500 cases were registered during the same night. Some 40 percent of those incidents involved some form of sexual assault.

Disturbing, First-hand Account of the Terror on New Years Eve in Cologne, Germany

Victim gives first-hand account of her sexual assault at the hands of Muslim refugees in Cologne, Germany

A new video has surfaced of a woman who was victimized by Muslim refugees on New Years Eve in Cologne.

26-year-old Selena wanted to tell her story and expose what happened. 

In an interview, she reveals that she, along with her women were called 'bitches and whores'. 

“They all looked at us like we were free meat at the supermarket, fair game,” she said. “Meat, checking to see if it's still fresh.” 

“There were hands that touched us, our butts and other parts on our bodies. It was simply undescribable. Never in my life before was I so afraid,” Selena added.

“I can tell you they were southern-looking. Southern type, darker skin, they spoke Arabic overwhelmingly,” she said to describe her attackers. “With German, if you spoke German, you didn't get anywhere.”

She goes on to say that the police didn't have a grip on the situation at all and the police looked afraid. Her attackers couldn't understand her because they didn't speak German.

It takes a lot of bravery to come out with information like this. Selena's information should not be taken lightly.

Thank you for the courage to speak out, Selena. You are my hero today! God bless you and keep you safe.


Tarrahush Gamea

The Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), the main investigative authority in Germany, said in a response to Welt newspaper it knows sexual harassment of women in public is widespread in Arab countries, and that this is exactly what happened on New Year’s Eve in Cologne. Collective harassment is translated as “taharrush gamea” (حرش جماعي).

"Such crimes are committed by groups of young men… mostly when there are large gatherings of people, such as demonstrations. They range from sexual harassment to rape," the BKA told Welt.

“Taharrush gamea” is recognized in Egypt, where it stands for “lighter” sexual abuse or gang rape. A recent study suggests Egyptian crowds practiced “taharrush” during the 2011 revolution that toppled then-President Hosni Mubarak, and it took more violent forms like rape during mass unrest in Tahrir Square. 

So far, the number of criminal cases filed with the Cologne police has grown to 516 - 40 percent of which relate to sexual assaults. Local police said that 19 suspects are under investigation, while in Hamburg police are investigating 133 cases relating to assaults during New Year’s celebrations in the St. Pauli district.

Taharrush Gamea in Tahrir Square, Cairo - Islamic insanity

Cologne Mass Sex Assaults (Now Over 200) Appear Planned, Co-ordinated

Cologne mass sex assaults appear planned, co-ordinated, German justice minister says

Merkel's open-door policy scrutinized amid assaults, news Paris knife attacker lived in Germany

The Associated Press

German Justice Minister Heiko Maas delivers remarks in Berlin on the assaults
in Cologne, Germany, on New Year's Eve. He said it is possible the attacks
are linked to similar offences in other cities. (Britta Pedersen/Associated Press)

German authorities need to quickly determine whether a string of New Year's Eve sexual assaults and robberies in Cologne blamed largely on foreigners may be linked to similar offences in other cities, the justice minister said in comments published Sunday.

Authorities and witnesses say the attackers were among about 1,000 people, mostly men, gathered at Cologne's central train station, some of whom broke off into small groups that groped and robbed women.

"If such a horde gathers in order to commit crimes, that appears in some form to be planned," Justice Minister Heiko Maas told the newspaper Bild. "Nobody can tell me that this was not co-ordinated or prepared."

The attacks are still being investigated, but police have said their focus is on suspects of primarily North African origin, which has put pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel's government and its open-door policy to asylum seekers. Nearly 1.1 million refugees and migrants arrived in Germany in 2015 alone.

She announced a proposal Saturday that would make it easier to deport refugees and migrants who commit crimes, which still needs parliamentary approval.

Cologne police said Sunday that 516 criminal complaints had now been filed with them in connection to the New Year's Eve attacks, about 40 per cent of which involve allegations of sexual offences (over 200). 

They also announced that on Saturday night they arrested a 19-year-old Moroccan man on allegations he stole a 23-year-old woman's cellphone on New Year's Eve, and had identified 19 other suspects by name. Police said the Moroccan, who they said has been involved in various crimes since 2013, isn't accused of a sexual offence, but the investigation is ongoing.


Paris knife attacker linked to Germany 

In a separate development that seemed likely to provide more grist for opponents of Merkel's policies, police in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Saturday raided an apartment at a shelter for asylum seekers in Recklinghausen that they said had been occupied by an extremist who French police fatally shot on Thursday as he ran up to a Paris police station wielding a butcher's knife and wearing a fake explosives vest.

French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in remarks Sunday that the man was also believed to have lived in Luxembourg and Switzerland.

The mug shot (left) provided Sunday, Jan. 10, 2016 by the police in Duesseldorf, western Germany, shows a man that applied for asylum in Germany with name Walid Salihi. 

The man was fatally shot by French police on Thursday as he ran up to a Paris police station wielding a butcher's knife and wearing a fake explosives vest. 

He had first entered Germany in 2013 after living for five years illegally in France, and had gone by at least seven names, identifying himself as a Tunisian, Moroccan and Georgian. (Landeskriminalamt Recklinghausen via Associated Press)

North Rhine-Westphalia state police chief Uwe Jacob described the suspect as a smalltime criminal known to authorities by several aliases, who had a record that included weapons charges, drug trafficking and causing bodily harm and had spent at least a month in jail.

He said there are no indications the man was part of an extremist network, but that a self-drawn Islamic State flag was found in his room, the dpa news agency reported.

At a news conference in Duesseldorf, Jacob told reporters that the man had first entered Germany in 2013 after living for five years illegally in France, and had gone by at least seven names, identifying himself as a Tunisian, Moroccan and Georgian. He lived in several German cities and moved to Recklinghausen at the beginning of last August.


Suspects called 'modern-day nomads'

Separately, police in Hamburg are also investigating sexual assaults and thefts in the St. Pauli district similar to those in Cologne, which occurred on a smaller scale in the northern city on New Year's Eve. Authorities in Sweden and Finland are also investigating similar incidents in their countries.

"All connections must be carefully checked," Maas said. "There is a suspicion that a particular date was chosen with expected crowds. That would then be a new dimension."

Of an initial 31 suspects detained by police for questioning, 18 were asylum seekers but there were also two Germans, an American and others, and none of them were accused specifically of committing sexual assaults.

Women shout slogans and hold up a placard that reads 'Against Sexism - Against Racism' as they march through the main railways station of Cologne on Jan. 5. 

About 90 women have reported being robbed, threatened or sexually molested at the New Year's celebrations outside Cologne's cathedral by young men. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters )

Police have released few details, but Bild on Sunday said one, a 22-year-old Tunisian, was registered at a refugee centre in a neighbouring state, while two Moroccans aged 18 and 23, were apparently in the country illegally, according to their attorney.

"Our clients are modern nomads," attorney Ingo Lindemann told the newspaper. "They're not war refugees, but more like grown street children who move with the flow of refugees across Europe."

Cologne police wouldn't confirm the report on the three and Lindemann didn't immediately return a phone call or an email.

Participants of a women's flash mob demonstrate against racism and sexism
 in Cologne, Germany, Sat Jan 9, 2016. (Juergen Schwarz/Associated Press)

Not Just Germany Reporting Mob Sex Abuse on New Years Eve

Cologne police chief removed after New Year's Eve attacks

From BBC Europe

The assaults on women led to an increased police presence
outside the station next to Cologne cathedral

The head of Cologne's police force is leaving his post "to restore public trust in the police" following scores of attacks on women in the city on New Year's Eve.

The police's handling of the night's events has been sharply criticised.

The violence outside the main railway station has sparked a debate about Germany's open door policy on migrants.

The anti-immigration Pegida group has said it will hold a demonstration in Cologne on Saturday. Police are expecting around 1,000 people to gather in front of the city's main train station, German media reports say.

Gangs of men described as of North African and Arab appearance were reported to be behind the attacks on New Year's Eve. A group of about 1,000 had gathered at the station in the western city.

Victims described chaos as dozens of sexual assaults and robberies were carried out with little apparent response from the authorities.

A man is led away by police officers at the main train station in
Cologne, Germany (early 01 January 2016) Image copyrightEPA

Police did make some arrests in the early hours of New Year's Day. Federal authorities say they have identified 18 asylum-seekers among 31 suspects linked to crimes committed in Cologne on New Year's Eve.

The suspects include nine Algerians, eight Moroccans, four Syrians, five Iranians, two Germans and one each from Iraq, Serbia and the US.

The state interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Ralf Jaeger said on Friday that he had suspended police chief Wolfgang Albers from his duties. He has been accused of holding back information about the attacks, in particular about the origin of the suspects.

Mr Jaeger said the removal would not affect the investigation into the events of 31 December.

"People rightly want to know what happened on New Year's Eve, who the perpetrators are and how such events can be prevented in future," he said.

Discomfort under the surface :German media reaction

Debating rules on deporting criminals is a distraction, writes Heribert Prantl in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The law already provides for the deportation of criminal refugees, he says - the problem is the mistakes made by the police on the night and their inability to enforce the law.

Writing in the Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung, Christian Geyer largely agrees. Whether or not Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis with asylum seeker status were among the perpetrators changes nothing in the debate, he writes. The questions for the police and justice system remain the same.

And while Chancellor Merkel's asylum policies are controversial, she doesn't need the help of favourable police reports, he adds.

Chancellor Merkel's friendly face is gone, writes Philipp Wittrock in Der Spiegel. The chancellor recognised that the events in Cologne had the potential to sow mistrust, divide society, and damage her political standing.

Discomfort in her own party at her welcoming asylum seekers continues to bubble under the surface, he writes.

Women describe 'terrible' assaults
"Twenty or 30 men surrounded us and we couldn't even move anymore"

The federal police is responsible for the station itself but not the area nearby.

Separately, Cologne police are investigating 21 people in connection with the sexual assaults. It is not known how many of these are asylum seekers.

The state police have recorded 170 complaints of crimes, 117 of which involve sexual assault. There were two allegations of rape.

Two men, aged 16 and 23 and apparently of North African origin, arrested overnight on Thursday in connection with the sex attacks, have been released without charge, according to German media.

Police Chief Wolfgang Albers (right) went after criticism from
Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker

'Clear signals'

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has condemned the violence, saying Germany should examine whether enough was being done to ensure foreigners convicted of crimes in the country are deported.

She said "clear signals" had to be sent to those not prepared to abide by German law.

In a separate case, police have arrested four Syrians, aged between 14 and 21, over the suspected gang rape of two teenage girls in the southern German town of Weil am Rhein on New Year's Eve, according to German media.

The attack is not believed to be connected to the events in Cologne, the police statement said.

Young men gather outside Cologne's main station on 31 Dec CopyrightAP
Police say women were forced to "run the gauntlet" through
gangs of drunk and aggressive men

The identification of the attackers in Cologne as North African or Arab in appearance has caused alarm in Germany because of the influx of more than a million migrants and refugees in the past year.

There has also been outrage outside Germany, with Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico calling for an extraordinary EU summit on the influx of migrants.

Politicians were continuing "to trivialise - even after the attacks in Cologne and other European cities - the security risks associated with unregulated and uncontrolled migration within the EU," he said.

Meanwhile German officials have warned that anti-immigrant groups have been trying to use the attacks to stir up hatred.

Elsewhere in Europe

Similar attacks to those seen in Cologne were also reported in Hamburg and in Stuttgart.

Police in several other European countries have also received complaints:

In Finland, police said they received reports of "widespread sexual harassment" in Helsinki on New Year's Eve, which they described as "a completely new phenomenon"

Police in the Swedish city of Kalmar have arrested two men over complaints by at least 15 women of sexual molestation

Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner pledged that police would take a "no tolerance" approach towards sexual assault after complaints of attacks in the city of Salzburg

Police in the Swiss city of Zurich said about six women had reported being robbed and sexually assaulted on New Year's Eve in attacks "a little bit similar" to those in Germany

Social media responses

"I feel so ashamed" - Anger on Arab-language social media

Facebook user Israa Ragab: "Every time I watch the TV and hear them saying the suspects could be from North Africa or Arabs I feel so ashamed and disgusted"

Deutsche Welle Arabic journalist Nahla Elhenawy: "The ugliness of our region is reaching Germany"

@Farcry99 on Twitter: "Will Europe regret receiving people who suffer from religious and political repression?"

Cologne Attacks: German Police Say New Year's Assaults May Be Linked to Criminal Network

About 90 people filed complaints related to string of sexual assaults and thefts during Dec. 31 celebrations

The Associated Press

Women hold up placards that read 'Mrs. Merkel: Where are you? What are you saying? This worries us!' during a protest in front of the Cologne Cathedral. About 90 people have reported being robbed, threatened or sexually molested during New Year's celebrations in the German city. (Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

Germany says nearly 1.1 million people registered as asylum-seekers in 2015

Police in Germany said Wednesday they are investigating whether a string of sexual assaults and thefts during New Year's celebrations in Cologne is linked to a known criminal network in the nearby city of Duesseldorf.

The assaults last week have prompted outrage in Germany and a fresh debate about immigration, after police said the perpetrators appeared to be of "Arab or North African origin."

Cologne cathedral

A more nuanced picture of what happened in the New Year's Eve chaos outside the Cologne train station emerged Wednesday.

Police said about 1,000 men gathered there and that smaller groups surrounded individual women, harassed them and stole their belongings. Police do not believe all 1,000 men were involved in the attacks.

The interior minister of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where Cologne and Duesseldorf are located, told news agency dpa that police have identified three suspects but have not yet arrested anyone.

About 90 people filed criminal complaints, though police have not said how many of them were women who were sexually assaulted. At least one woman said she was raped.

Police said some of the assaults in Cologne appeared similar to incidents that have been reported over the past two years in Duesseldorf, where men have groped women to distract them before stealing their belongings. The two cities are 40 kilometres apart.

Markus Niesczeri, a spokesman for Duesseldorf police, said that since the start of 2014, officers there have identified more than 2,000 suspects of North African origin in connection with organized thefts, though he did not say how many. He declined to say whether there have been any arrests in those cases.

Duesseldorf police were working closely with their counterparts in Cologne to determine whether crimes in the two cities might be connected, Niesczeri said.

Authorities have cautioned that the nationality and residency status of the Cologne suspects is still unknown, since no one has been arrested.

Germany registered nearly 1.1 million people as asylum seekers last year, according to Interior Ministry figures released Wednesday, and politicians who have called for limits on migration have seized on the incident in Cologne to bolster their position.

Germany's top security official stressed that those involved must be punished regardless of where they come from. Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that "you cannot draw a general suspicion against refugees from the indications that they were perhaps people who looked North African."

He added that "a bit of patience is necessary to clear up as completely as possible the structure of the perpetrators and the organizational structures there might have been," including whether there was any link to similar, smaller-scale incidents on New Year's Eve in Hamburg.

De Maiziere noted that, under German law, criminal behavior has a direct effect on a person's asylum proceedings if he or she is sentenced to at least three years in prison. He said that "we will have to talk about whether that needs to be changed."

In any case, "anyone who commits serious crimes, whatever status he is in, must reckon with being deported from Germany," de Maiziere said.

Large Crowd of Muslim Migrant Men Molest Girls in German City

‘New dimension of crime’: Crowd of ‘Arab origin’ blamed for mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Years Eve

Cologne, Germany © Report24 / YouTube

New Year’s celebrations in the western German city of Cologne escalated into chaos with a series of sexual assaults, including a rape, being blamed on an uncontrolled crowd of intoxicated men of “Arab or North African” origin.

The mass attack on women that happened “in the middle of the city” around Cologne Central Station on New Year's Eve was “an intolerable situation,” Chief of Police Wolfgang Albers told reporters.

So far the authorities in Cologne have received 60 complaints. The crowd of around 1,000 men attacked people in the city center in what Albers described as a “crime of a whole new dimension.”

According to report up to 1,000 heavily intoxicated men of “Arab or North African” origin flooded the city’s famous square between its central train station and Gothic cathedral. Aged between 15 and 35, the crowd began throwing firecrackers and shooting fireworks as the new year arrived.

While the festivities were happening to the sound of of cheers, some men began sexually assaulting women and pick-pocketing feasters. Some 60 criminal complaints have so far been officially filed, including at least one allegation of rape.

Authorities expect more victims to come forward in the next few days. Local media meanwhile reported that at least 80 people fell victim to the gangs, 35 of whom were subjected to sexual assaults. One of the victims, named only as Katja L, told Der Express about her ordeal with the crowd of men who assaulted her buttocks and breasts.

“I was groped everywhere. It was a nightmare. Although we shouted and beat them, the guys did not stop. I was desperate and think I was touched around 100 times in the 200 meters,” she said. “Fortunately I wore a jacket and trousers. A skirt would probably have been torn away from me.”

To quell the New Year’s disturbance in Cologne, the police deployed more than 200 officers, involving 143 local policemen in addition to 70 federal officers, The Local reported. On Sunday, police arrested five men at the station who had been accused of threatening and robbing females.

New Year’s attacks has sparked a strong wave of criticism of German handling of the migrant open-door policy introduced by Chancellor Angela Merkel in September that resulted in over a million of refugees intake in Germany.

To address the migrant threat, Cologne’s Mayor Henriette Reker called in a crisis meeting for Tuesday, to deal with crimes she called “monstrous.”

“We cannot tolerate this development of lawlessness,” Reker told the Kolner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper.

Yeah, good luck with that.

The state interior minister for North Rhine-Westphalia, said that swift action is needed to stop such crimes from reoccurring.

“We will not accept that groups of North African men gather expressly for the purpose of debasing women by sexually assaulting them,” Ralf Jager said in an interview with the local ‘Express’ newspaper.

Meanwhile the leader of the North Rhine-Westphalia branch of Germany's main police union, Arnold Plickert, called the New Year's assaults “a massive attack on basic rights.”

“Any refugees who have a problem integrating into our open society and respecting the rights of other people” must be dealt with using the “full force of the law,” Plickert told German press agency DPA.

German MP Steffan Bilger from Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union used the Cologne event to urge the government to change its refugee policy.

“It can’t go on like this,” he tweeted. “Urgently needed: reduction of influx, secure borders, intensifying of deportations and meaningful justice.”

Last Wednesday the Saechsische Zeitung daily reported, citing unpublished official figures, that in 2015 Germany had accommodated nearly 1.1 million refugees, five times more than in 2014.