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CRIME

Bochum police take heat for keeping brutal rape by serial offender secret

Police in Bochum had to defend themselves against accusations of a cover up on Wednesday after they failed to report on a violent rape which took place in a city park.

Published: 28 February 2018 14:58 CET
Bochum police take heat for keeping brutal rape by serial offender secret
File photo of German police officers: DPA

The crime took place on February 18th when a man attacked a 33-year-old woman in a park.

According to a secret police report seen by the Rheinische Post (RP) and the Westdeutsche Allgemeine, the man put a hood over the woman’s head before strangling her and forcing her to the ground. He then ordered her to take off all her clothes before raping her several times.

Police were able to arrest a 30-year-old suspect once they had questioned the victim. But instead of writing a press release about the crime, as is normal police practice, the Bochum police headquarters sent a confidential report to the North Rhine-Westphalia interior ministry.

Questions are now being asked as to why the police kept the crime secret. The RP writes that one possible reason is that the suspect is a convicted sexual offender, who was supposed to still be under observation.

The 30-year-old, convicted of sexual assault for crimes that took place in 2009 and 2010, was considered a potential risk to the public and had been listed for surveillance under the so-called Kurs programme.

The decision to keep the case secret provoked anger within the police force, with one officer telling the RP that “the public has the right to know that convicted sex offenders pose a real risk when they are released from prison.”

“If we hide this information then the public will get the impression that everything is fine and that people in the Kurs programme don’t reoffend,” he added.

The police in North Rhine-Westphalia have come in for criticism several times over recent years due to their perceived failure to adequately respond to serious crimes.

Failings in the observation of radical Islamist Anis Amri meant that he could leave the western state for Berlin without being adequately tracked. He went on to commit a terror attack in which twelve people lost their lives at the end of 2016.

Police in Cologne, meanwhile, did not immediately inform the public of a series of sexual assaults that took place during New Year celebrations at the end of 2015. On that occasion too, they were accused of hiding information due to the sensitivity of the crimes – descriptions of the attackers suggested many of them came from North Africa.

CRIME

Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

German authorities said Friday they had arrested a 27-year-old Syrian man who allegedly planned an Islamist attack on army soldiers using two machetes in Bavaria.

Published: 13 September 2024 11:17 CEST
Germany arrests Syrian man accused of plotting to kill soldiers

The suspect, an “alleged follower of a radical Islamic ideology”, was arrested on Thursday on charges of planning “a serious act of violence endangering the state”.

The man had acquired two heavy knives “around 40 centimetres (more than one foot) in length” in recent days, prosecutors in Munich said.

He planned to “attack Bundeswehr soldiers” in the city of Hof in northern Bavaria during their lunch break, aiming “to kill as many of them as possible”, prosecutors said.

“The accused wanted to attract attention and create a feeling of insecurity among the population,” they said.

German security services have been on high alert over the threat of Islamist attacks, in particular since the Gaza war erupted on October 7th with the Hamas attacks on Israel.

Police shot dead a man in Munich this month after he opened fire on officers in what was being treated as a suspected “terrorist attack” on the Israeli consulate in Munich.

The shootout fell on the anniversary of the kidnap and killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympic Games by Palestinian militants.

The 18-year-old suspect had previously been investigated by authorities in his home country Austria on suspicion of links to terrorism but the case had been dropped.

The incident capped a string of attacks in Germany, which have stirred a sense of insecurity in Germany and fed a bitter debate of immigration.

Three people were killed last month in a suspected Islamist stabbing at a festival in the western city of Solingen.

READ ALSO: ‘Ban asylum seekers’ – How Germany is reacting to Solingen attack

The suspect in the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, was a Syrian man who had been slated for deportation from Germany.

A federal interior ministry spokesman said if an Islamist motive was confirmed in the latest foiled attack, it would be “further evidence of the high threat posed by Islamist terrorism in Germany, which was recently demonstrated by the serious crimes in Mannheim and the attack in Solingen, but also by acts that were fortunately prevented by the timely intervention of the security authorities”.

The Solingen stabbing followed a knife attack in the city of Mannheim in May, which left a policeman dead, and which had also been linked to Islamism by officials.

Germany has responded to the attacks by taking steps to tighten immigration controls and knife laws.

READ ALSO: Debt, migration and the far-right – the big challenges facing Germany this autumn

The government has announced new checks along all of its borders and promised to speed up deportations of migrants who have no right to stay in Germany.

The number of people considered Islamist extremists in Germany fell slightly from 27,480 in 2022 to 27,200 last year, according to a report from the federal domestic intelligence agency.

But Interior Minister Nancy Faeser warned in August that “the threat posed by Islamist terrorism remains high”.

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