The following articles are the first two parts of a three-part series on migrant sex crimes published by the German portal Freilich Magazin. Many thanks to Hellequin GB for the translations.
Exclusive: Sexual crimes and migrants — how defense-ready is the state? (1)
According to police crime statistics, a total of 1,139 rapes were reported in Austria in 2022. The proportion of foreign nationals in the total number of suspects was 42.5%. The situation is also dramatic in Germany. In this three-part research, Freilich examines the connection between sexual offenses and migrants.
An Afghan abused several women for years. Nevertheless, the district court of Regensburg released the man on probation. On the 19th of August, the chairman of the German Police Union therefore called for the youth criminal law to be tightened. According to the Federal Statistical Office, 1,257 sex offenders were convicted of rape, sexual coercion or sexual assault in Germany in 2021. More than half of these sex offenders (698) were released back onto the streets by the courts with suspended sentences.
In this three-part research, Freilich examines whether the extent of migrant sexual crime in Germany and Austria requires action by politicians and the judiciary: Part 1 uses crime statistics to show migrants’ share of sexual crimes in the Federal Republic and the Alpine Republic. Part 2 presents the ten most blatant coddling judgments made by migrant sex offenders in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. The third part deals with the challenges facing the German judiciary in the prosecution of sexual crimes, and shows possible solutions.
Diversity and sexual violence
Diversity and immigration are terms that polarize society. The right-wing women’s initiative “Lukreta” explained in an interview with Freilich that “archaic images of women held by immigrants from Muslim cultures” are not compatible with women’s rights. Rising migrant violence against women since 2015 is an “open secret”.
The SPD politician Reem Alabali-Radovan sees it differently. The Federal Commissioner for Migration is convinced that “diversity skills” increase the efficiency of organizations. Although 27% of all people in Germany have a migration background, they only make up 12% of the civil servants, says Alabali-Radovan in criticism.
Can the Federal Commissioner for Migration’s thesis that diversity benefits administration also be transferred to the security of women in a society? The crime statistics from the German and Austrian police provide clear answers.
Rapes in Austria
According to the 2022 police crime statistics (PKS), 1,139 rapes were reported in Austria. That is 8.1% more than in the previous year. However, the Austrian PKS does not show the proportion of suspected rapists who are foreigners.
However, the police in the Alpine republic show the proportion of foreign nationals in the total number of suspects: in 2022 this was 42.5%. Last year, only 19% of all Austrian residents were foreigners.
The overrepresentation of foreign suspects in overall crime suggests that migrants are also overrepresented among rape suspects. However, only the German PKS provides reliable statements on this.
Sexual crimes in Germany
The German Police Crime Statistics 2022 (PKS) records suspects in sexual offenses under the crime code 111000. According to paragraphs 177 and 178 of the Criminal Code (StGB), this includes rape, sexual assault and sexual coercion. Last year, 10,045 suspected sex offenders were registered in Germany. That is 16% more suspects than in the previous year. Unlike in Austria, Table 62 of the German PKS 2022 also contains numbers on foreign suspects in sexual crimes. These make up 37% of all suspects in sexual crimes.
A query from AfD member of the Bundestag Nicole Höchst also revealed that the proportion of foreigners involved in gang rapes is particularly high: In a press release on August 24th, the MP revealed that half of the 789 suspected gang rapists did not have German citizenship. Foreigners were also significantly overrepresented at 39.9% in 2021 among sex offenders convicted under paragraphs 177 and 178. This emerges from a publication by the Federal Statistical Office. The figures for 2022 are not yet available.
In 2022, however, only 16% of all residents in Germany were foreigners. Foreigners in Germany are reported and convicted of sexual offenses significantly more often than Germans. Freilich reported that Afghan nationals are particularly common among foreign suspects. They are more than eleven times as likely to be suspects in sexual crimes as German citizens. They are followed by Syrians, Bulgarians, Turks and Romanians.
Apples and oranges: Are Germans and foreigners comparable?
Critics of the comparison of local and foreign crime point out that it is not the origin but the economic situation and education of the suspects that are crucial. The Tagesspiegel author Erik Wenk described it as a “search for a scapegoat”, after the AfD points out that foreigners made up more than 70% of all robbery suspects in Potsdam in 2021. Anyone who wants to fight crime must invest in education and jobs. The over-representation of foreign suspects in robbery and theft crimes is entirely understandable given the economic situation of the perpetrators. With regard to the over-representation of foreigners in sexual crimes, however, Wenk’s argument is not convincing. Because it is not clear what economic benefit an unemployed foreigner might derive from raping women and girls.
Another point of criticism when comparing the crime of locals and foreigners is that the proportion of young men among migrants is generally higher than the German average. The overrepresentation of Syrians, Afghans or Turks in crime statistics is therefore solely due to demographic characteristics, but not to cultural or innate characteristics.
Tables 40, 50 and 51 of the PKS 2022 clarify this objection. The tables show the suspects by crime, gender and age for German, non-German and Turkish citizens. Comparable tables for migrants from other Muslim countries are not yet available. The tables mentioned allow a statement to be made about the relative frequency with which Germans, foreigners and Turks appear in police custody. The calculation is as follows: The number of suspects according to crime code 111000 (rape, sexual assault, sexual assault) in the age groups 21 to 29 years of Germans, foreigners and Turks is divided by the population of the respective group. Finally, the result is multiplied by 100,000 and you get the number of suspects per 100,000 inhabitants.
The German state is currently not publishing any suspect crime figures that would enable a comparison of crime by nationality. Nevertheless, these numbers speak for themselves: out of 100,000 German men between the ages of 21 and 29, 49 were suspected of a sexual offense last year. Turkish and foreign nationals (including Turks) are more than twice as high, with 111 and 114 suspects per 100,000, respectively. The difference would probably be even greater if the 12.2 million Germans with a migrant background were excluded from the calculation. Because every Turk who receives German citizenship is no longer listed as a Turk in the PKS, but as a German.
Are victims of sexual violence racist?
Birgit Haller gives another argument against comparing domestic and foreign crime. The Austrian conflict researcher said in an interview with the Standard on September 20, 2020 that migrants were reported more often than locals. However, Haller points out that the increase in rapes in Austria since the migration crisis in 2015 is “simply too great” to be explained solely by the reporting behavior of the victims.
The journalist Martin Lichtmesz is convinced of the opposite: In “The Hierarchy of Victims”, the Austrian right-wing intellectual argues that migrants occupy a top position in the victim hierarchy of the “woke” West. Crimes committed by migrants are trivialized, while their victims are marginalized. In progressive circles, reporting a sexual offense by a migrant is subject to a social stigma.
Thor Kunkel memorialized this trend with his novel In the Garden of the Eloi. In this satire on the green, affluent society, the protagonist Harro Grunenberg has to realize that those around him are not very impressed by the campaign of revenge for his raped daughter.
Selin Gören is an example of how the hierarchy of victims can make it difficult to deal with migrant violence in progressive circles: in 2016, the young politician was raped by three migrants at a playground. For Gören, who, as the Left Youth spokesperson at the time, never missed a “Refugees Welcome” demonstration, her worldview collapsed: she lied to the police. Only her handbag was stolen. The perpetrators spoke German. Out of shame she initially concealed the fact that the rapists looked Arabic and insulted her in “Kurdish or Farsi”.
A question of culture?
Freilich wanted to know from the legal policy spokesmen of the German parliamentary groups how the over-representation of foreigners in sexual crimes in Germany and Austria comes about. Only the AfD parliamentary group responded before deadline.
The AfD member of the Bundestag Tobias Peterka told Freilich that the imposition of suspended sentences would be perceived as an “acquittal” in “some parallel societies”. According to the member of the AfD legal working group, German society is then often labeled as “weak”. This leads to even more frustration and aggression due to the low level of education and the “entitlement” mentality of many migrants.
North Rhine-Westphalia state parliament member Daniel Zerbin (AfD) told Freilich that the group of foreign perpetrators was not “homogeneous”. He pointed out that Japanese people are significantly less likely to be sex offenders than people from Muslim countries. According to the criminologist, these differences in behavior may be due to culture and religion.
These interpretations correspond to the experiences of Birgit Haller. The head of the Institute for Conflict Research examined numerous court files on sexual offenses in the wake of the 2015 asylum crisis. She noticed that a large proportion of the mostly Afghan migrants did not perceive their actions as rape. Men from “pre-modern societies” would not see women as equals. “A girl in hot pants is seen by them as an invitation.”
Find out in Part 2 what the ten most blatant coddling judgments are against migrant sex offenders in Austria, Germany and Switzerland. In the coming part 3, read what hinders the German justice system in prosecuting sexual offenders and what solutions are available to combat sexual violence.
Exclusive: Sexual crimes and migrants — how defense-ready is the state? (2)
An Afghan man abuses several women for years and is released on parole. In 2021, German courts convicted more than 1,257 male sex offenders of rape, sexual coercion or sexual assault. More than half of the perpetrators were given suspended sentences. In the second part of the three-part research, Freilich presents the ten most blatant coddling judgments for sex offenders in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Case 1: The serial sexual offender from Regensburg
On August 3rd of this year, the Regensburg regional court released a six-time sex offender, according to the Bild newspaper. The alleged refugee was arrested at Munich Airport in January of 2023 when he had just returned from home leave. According to the verdict, Mohammad M. harassed several women between 2019 and 2021. One of the victims was only 16 years old. The Afghan raped her on a bench near Regensburg main train station in April of 2019.
The attorney Jörg Meyer described his client as “fully integrated”. The judge also sees the rapist as “actually a prime example” of integration. Another mitigating factor was that the Afghan had been drinking before the crime and had been in custody for six months. The verdict was correspondingly lenient. Mohammad M. received 22 months probation, must complete anti-aggression training and is no longer allowed to get drunk.
Case 2: The “severely mentally ill” rapist from Hamburg
According to Die Zeit, the Hamburg district court declared a rapist from Syria incompetent on August 17th. The perpetrator, Al A., ambushed a young American woman on her way home at the end of December last year. The 28-year-old migrant attacked and raped the 20-year-old on a dirt road in Harburg. Al A said, to comfort her, he offered her something to eat after the crime.
A few days later, the 28-year-old forced his way into the apartment of a pensioner in Barmbek. He smashed several bones in her face with punches. Neighbors and the summoned police were able to prevent anything worse from happening.
According to the court report, the Syrian is “severely mentally ill”. For the court, this means: No prison sentence, but placement in a psychiatric hospital until the Syrian no longer poses a danger to the general public.
The Syrian sex offender Al A. represents a larger trend in Hamburg. As Freilich reported, the Hanseatic city has to spend more and more money on accommodating migrants. At the same time, the feeling of security decreases. This emerges from the Hamburg police survey “Security and Crime 2020”. Afterwards, two thirds of Hamburg women no longer feel safe on the street at night. Only half of Hamburg’s women feel safe on public transport.
Case 3: Previously convicted and not integrated? Probation!
On January 29, 2019, according to the daily newspaper Kurier, the Vienna regional court sentenced a Turk to 15 months on probation for attempted rape. The perpetrator, who was 17 at the time of the crime, noticed the then-15-year-old victim on the street. At Vienna’s Quellenplatz he followed her into a residential building and kissed her. When the girl fought back, he pushed her against the wall in the stairwell and pulled down his pants. A resident of the house who rushed over saved the girl from the ordeal. The Turk fled.
The perpetrator was investigated for theft and serious sexual coercion. The perpetrator, who followed his father from Turkey to Austria in 2011, was identified using a DNA smear.
During the proceedings, the Turk’s lack of integration became apparent: According to his own statements, he only moves in the Turkish community and works in an Islamic supermarket. He was only able to follow the trial proceedings with the help of an interpreter. However, he had sexual experiences before the attempted rape by visiting a brothel with two cousins.
Despite this extremely unfavorable social prognosis, the court imposed a suspended sentence. The victim is still suffering from the consequences of the crime to this day. Panic attacks and anxiety attacks still bother her. The court awarded her compensation of €1,300. The perpetrator, on the other hand, must undergo sexual therapy. It is not clear from the Kurier report whether he will be provided with an interpreter.
Case 4: Child molestation twice, still only probation
On August 1, 2021, according to a report by the Gießener Allgemeine, the Giessen District Court imposed a suspended sentence on the previously convicted sex offender Khudai R. In January 2020, he sneaked into the bedroom of a sleeping 13-year-old girl and abused her. The Afghan migrant confessed and appeared contrite, but said “not a word of apology or regret.”
The abused girl’s representative demanded a harsh punishment. The Gießener Allgemeine described the consequences of the abuse as “months of suffering”. For judge Heiko Kriewald, however, the perpetrator’s willingness was enough: he confessed and understood. It is given much to his credit the fact that as a refugee he is threatened with losing his residence status. Public prosecutor Volker Bützler saw it similarly and presented a “favorable social prognosis”. They wanted to give the sex offender “one last chance”.
What the public prosecutor is referring to: According to the Bild newspaper, the Afghan child molester had already been sentenced to probation in 2020 for sexually abusing a mentally disabled eleven-year-old and possessing child pornography. The abuse occurred during meetings in front of a train station in Lower Saxony, where sexual intercourse occurred several times. After Khudai R. had satisfied himself, he handed the girl over to “two Afghan accomplices”, according to the Bild newspaper. Even then, Khudai R. could have been deported as a convicted sex offender.
The practice of child abuse is still a cultural phenomenon in Afghanistan today. More than 20% of all Afghan women have already been married at the age of 15. On August 2, 2016, Deutsche Welle reported on a particularly questionable case: a 60-year-old Afghan had married a six-year-old girl. The girl was first kidnapped by her future husband and then sold by her family for a goat and some money.
The child molester Khudai R. has a good laugh: the Giessen jury sentenced him to one year and eight months, suspended for three years. He also has to do sex therapy and donate €1,000 to a non-profit organization.
Case 5: Kosovo rapists: here to stay.
On January 14, 2023, the Nidwaldner Zeitung reported that the Nidwalden Higher Court sentenced a Kosovar to a conditional prison sentence for raping his then-wife. The father of the family had raped his wife twice before 2019.
The court imposed a conditional prison sentence of 22 months. The Kosovar must also pay a fine of 15,000 francs and leave Switzerland for five years. The rapist, who has a son in Switzerland, had lodged a complaint against the expulsion. This represents an unreasonable hardship. On January 20th, the Nidwaldner Zeitung reported on the decision of the Nidwalden Higher Court: The Kosovar must now leave Switzerland for five years.
Case 6: The virgin rapist from Bad Säckingen
On May 12, 2021, the district court of Bad Säckingen imposed another suspended sentence on a Syrian rapist, according to the Südkurier. The 26-year-old immigrant had penetrated a 22-year-old woman against her will with his finger in December 2020. The convict had previously invited the woman to his home. On the sofa, he told his victim about the “difficult conditions” under which he had come to Germany from Syria.
A month earlier, the Syrian had denied the rape allegation in court. He merely kissed the woman and caressed her breasts. He rejects sex before marriage for “religious reasons”. In vain: The migrant was sentenced to one year in prison on probation for two years. He also has to pay €1,000 to a non-profit organization.
Case 7: “Raped in every possible way”
On November 19, 2022, the Dresden District Court sentenced a Chechen rapist to a suspended sentence, according to Tag24. The 34-year-old father Khizar I visited his secret lover in her apartment near Dresden in May 2020. When the woman rejected his advances, the man saw red. He tore the clothes from her body. “Then he raped her in every way possible”, according to Tag24.
Although Khizar I threatened his victim with death, the woman eventually reported him. Khizar I was taken into custody. There, the court and prosecutors made him an offer he couldn’t refuse: two years’ probation for a confession. Khizar I accepted the offer. The prosecutor literally described the sentence in her plea as a “gift”.
Case 8: “Rapists more important than children’s souls”
On July 19, 2022, the Editorial Network Germany reported that the probation judgment of the Waren district court in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for the rape of an eleven-year-old girl had become legal. The girl was lured to the Neustrelitz castle park in mid-January 2022 by an “unaccompanied refugee” from Afghanistan. There the immigrant attacked the girl and raped her.
Since the perpetrator was estimated to be 16 years old, the trial took place behind closed doors. When the court expelled the raped woman’s father from the courtroom, he turned to the press. Mark S. told RTL that the process was “already decided”. Several witnesses were not heard. Important details are being kept under wraps, said S.
The Afghan, believed to be 16 years old, was sentenced to one year in prison on probation for two years. The perpetrator was given a probation officer and must report to the juvenile court service. The father of the raped girl described the verdict as a “joke”. “The protection of child molesters and rapists takes precedence over the protection of children’s souls in our country.”
Case 9: Perpetrator rapes disabled person and shows no remorse
According to eXXpress, the Vienna Regional Court sentenced two Syrian rapists to a partial suspended prison sentence on April 13, 2023. The older of the two perpetrators had lured a mentally handicapped woman to a toilet on Vienna’s Praterstern, where his 17-year-old compatriot was already waiting. While the 22-year-old perpetrator, who according to eXXpress looks much older, was guarding the toilet, the younger one violated the disabled woman. The doorkeeper urged his younger accomplice to hurry, “Come out, I also want a turn.” Station employees, who had become aware of the group of foreigners in front of the toilet, freed the handicapped woman from her ordeal.
According to eXXpress, the Syrians tried to blame each other. They showed no remorse and denied committing rape. The perpetrators received prison sentences of two years and two and a half years respectively. They only have to serve eight months of this sentence. The remaining 16 or 22 months are suspended. “In a few months they will be able to hang around the Praterstern again”, commented the eXXpress on the verdict. Two children were involved in the crime as look-outs. They could not be prosecuted because they were under 14 years old at the time of the crime.
Case 10: Hardly any criminal record — probation!
On March 1, the Osnabrück district court sentenced a 30-year-old to a suspended sentence for raping a 15-year-old, reports the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung: The Syrian perpetrator met his victim in July 2022 in front of a discotheque in downtown Osnabrück. Against her will, the Syrian pushed his victim against the wall and groped her. The girl was able to break away and fled into a stairwell. There the perpetrator attacked his victim and raped her.
What made the sentence more severe was that the 30-year-old Syrian had given his underage victim drugs before the crime. But that left Judge Michael Hune cold: He justified the suspended sentence by saying that the Syrian had “no significant criminal record”. He was also disinhibited due to alcohol consumption. “It was the first time I drank alcohol”, said the Syrian, apologizing for the crime. The rapist also has an apartment and may be able to get a job in the future, said Hune. The judge is certain: “You are well on your way to becoming a completely normal citizen here.”
The perpetrator can breathe a sigh of relief: he was sentenced to two years’ probation. His conditions include a ban on approaching the victim and payment of €3,000 in compensation. In the eyes of the judge, agreeing to compensation for pain and suffering is probably a kind of win-win situation. Hune said to the defendant: “So you can at least work and pay her the compensation that she would otherwise never get.”
Afterword from the translator:
I really had to curb my anger and “enthusiasm” while I read and translated this, since I was really tempted to comment almost on each and ever sentence with more sarcasm and vitriol that Ned would have had to change completely. I just let it to go keep him from having apoplexy.
Anyway, what type of people are these so called “Judges” that they have no empathy with the victims? To me they are even worse that the perps they’re mollycoddling like something precious… “my precious”. One wonders what will come next? Maybe the victims of these prowling predators will be stoned to death according to Sharia Law? I wouldn’t it put past these “judges” that this will be the next step.
Anyhow, let’s wait and see what will be said in part 3 when it comes out. Not that I’m holding my breath.