A judge in Germany has allowed an Afghan refugee to walk free despite admitting to raping and assaulting numerous girls.
According to Fox News, 23-year-old Mohammad came to Germany from Afghanistan in 2015. He was reportedly arrested in January 2023 for assaulting girls over the course of three years, including one who was as young as 16 years old.
The juvenile district court in Regensburg confirmed to Fox News that Mohammad, who had been detained for six months, was released after trial.
“The defendant was sentenced to a juvenile term of 1 year and 10 months for rape in combination with sexual assault in three separate cases and sexual harassment. The juvenile sentence was suspended. As a condition of probation, the defendant was required to abstain from alcohol consumption, participate in various training sessions and pay 2,500 Euros to the injured party,” a spokesperson said.
The court explained that when dealing with criminal behavior that was committed while a person was a minor, it typically allows for flexible sentences and educational or remedial possibilities. The probationary period was given as a result of Mohammad’s confession, his educational and professional background, and the time he spent in pre-trial detention.
“The defendant committed the offenses as an adolescent, and the juvenile court applied juvenile criminal law in sentencing him. In contrast to adult criminal law, when applying juvenile criminal law the court is not bound by the range of punishment or the legal consequences of the criminal provisions (fine and/or imprisonment), as the educational concept is paramount in juvenile criminal law and juvenile criminal law provides for its own sanction options,” the court said.
The ruling caused a stir among the German press, with Bild writing, “He rapes 16-year-olds and gets released!”
Local right-wing commentator Henning Hoffgaard also blasted the court, questioning how the judge came up with the “idea of praising the perpetrator as a ‘model example’ of integration.”
“Anyone who comes to Germany as a migrant and then sexually assaults women in rows is not a ‘prime example’ of integration. It doesn’t matter at all whether the offender has graduated from [high] school, likes to play soccer, [and] has completed an apprenticeship… This man doesn’t belong in Germany,” Hoffgaard added. “He is a danger to the general public.”
