8 Iraqi Men Jailed for Gang-Rape of German Tourist in Austria

© AP 

Nine to 13 years

Eight Iraqi asylum seekers have been sentenced by an Austrian court to between nine and 13 years in jail for the brutal gang-rape of a 28-year-old German woman during New Year’s celebrations over a year ago.

A group nine Iraqi nationals, between 22 and 48 years, were arrested last summer in Vienna and two other Austrian provinces and charged with “abuse of a defenseless person and rape in a very humiliating and agonizing way for the victim.”

Charges against one suspect were dropped, as investigators found that he was asleep during the assault.

All members of the same family, the men came to Austria as migrants between May and December 2015. Five of them already had refugee status at the time of the assault, while the other four had their applications pending.

Vienna New Year's Eve 2016

The brutal assault took place on 2015/2016 New Year’s Eve, as the victim from the northern German state of Lower Saxony came to Vienna to celebrate with her female friend. The victim got “separated” from her friend during the festivities and met four reportedly drunk Iraqis at some point after midnight. They took advantage of her heavily intoxicated state and brought her to a flat, where five other men were waiting.

The perpetrators assaulted the victim for several hours, and the savage attack left the woman in need of medical and psychological treatment. “Nothing makes me happy anymore,” her lawyer quoted her as saying.

Only one of the perpetrators has reportedly acknowledged the rape and showed some remorse, while others either claimed the sex to have been “consensual” or have denied it altogether.

The investigating team, however, managed to prove their horrific assault with DNA and video evidence.

The quite harsh sentences imposed on the eight Iraqis might serve as a “warning” for all the migrants coming to Austria, Defense lawyer Andreas Reichenbach believes.

“As we all know, asylum-seekers don't have the best image here in Austria,” AP quoted him as saying. “I think that this surely played a certain role, to make it clear to these people that when they come to Austria that such behavior won't be tolerated.”

The victim was awarded damages of €25,000 ($26,265). Both prosecution and defense teams said they might appeal the court ruling, Reuters reported, citing the court spokesperson.

Migrants from other countries expressed fear that such outrageous cases might incite hostility against them to a whole new level and condemned the attack.

“Eight people raping a woman – that's honor-less! Such a thing doesn't exist in our religion,” a migrant from Turkey, Burhan Akbas told AP.

I'm sorry; what planet do you live on? Is it more 'honorable if only 4 people rape a woman, or just 2 or 3? Does marrying 9 year olds exist in your religion? Does taking sex slaves exist in your religion? Have you actually read the Quran?

Sexual related attacks and incidents have been on the rise amid EU’s migrant crisis. Last year, mass sexual abuse transpired in the German city of Cologne, perpetrated by a group of men allegedly of North African and Arab descent, although police failed to identify all the attackers.

Ahead of New Year celebrations this year, police in Austria’s capital Vienna took precautions and distributed 6,000 special “anti-rape” pocket alarms among women. The devices emit a shrill sound to deter potential perpetrators and alert police.

Despite the measures, at least 18 sexual assaults occurred during this year’s revelry in the Austrian city of Innsbruck, where women were reportedly groped by a gang of “individuals.”

9 Iraqi Gang Rapists Cannot be Deported from Austria

By David Frankenhuis

In the Austrian capital of Vienna, nine Iraqi men are now on trial for kidnapping and gang-raping a 28-year-old German woman nearly 14 months ago, on New Year’s Eve 2016. The suspects, between 23 and 47 years of age, are all relatives. They entered Austria as asylum seekers.

This makes no sense!

The migrants may face 15 years in jail for their crimes. After serving their sentences, they cannot be deported to Iraq since that country has reintroduced the death penalty in 2004, Kronen Zeitung reports today.

This is just odd; are they facing charges in Iraq? If not, and if they have paid for their crimes by serving time in Austrian prisons, what is stopping them from being deported? They won't have to face court in Iraq for gang-raping a woman in Austria, so what does it matter if Iraq has the death penalty. Unless they are facing criminal charges warranting a possible death sentence, then there is no reason not to deport them. If they are, do you really want to keep them in Austria? It makes no sense. How many Austrian girls will suffer abuse because of this nonsensical ruling?

Just two weeks ago I posted a story of an 18 y/o who raped a 72 y/o woman (see second story). He won't be deported because he has no prior record. The fact that he had only been in Austria for 2 months seems to have been lost on officials.

Only one of the Arabs has confessed to the rape charges. Some of the other migrants have admitted to having ‘sex’ with the victim, named Julia, but deny any claims of coercion in the ordeal lasting more than two hours.

They even dared to state in court that “the woman had initiated all of it,” which is rather flippant considering the fact that Julia was carried away from a restaurant by four of the men to an apartment several miles away, after being plied with drinks that possibly were spiked.

Vienna Christmas market

In the apartment, 5 male relatives of the men were waiting. All of the wives and daughters had been sent away in advance in order to create some ‘privacy’. One of the Iraqis later told police:

“The room should be dark, we had decided, so she did not realise how many of us were present at the time, but she caused trouble by crying so much and sometimes by trying to fight back against us.”

Then all of the 9 refugees raped the terrified victim, some of whom even violated her more than once. Following the gang rape during the NYE festivities, the men took selfies with her and one was even “dancing and singing,” OE24 yesterday reported.

When the ordeal was finally over, the men dumped Julia near a tram station. The disoriented and traumatised woman was then found by passers-by, who brought her to a police station.

Julia has since quit her job and was hospitalised in a psychiatric clinic. She has been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic disorder and depression.

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.

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.

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.

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.