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Sexual assaults double at Munich’s Oktoberfest

Police in Munich have reported 12 cases of sexual assault at this year's Oktoberfest so far – double the amount at the same time last year.

Published: 2 October 2013 08:11 CEST

Sexual assaults double at Munich's Oktoberfest

Photo: DPA

A group looking out for the safety of women and girls at the Oktoberefest – the “Sichere Wiesen für Mädchen und Frauen” have cared for 83 women in a little over a week since the world’s biggest folk festival started. Volunteers set up camp at the Oktoberfest each year offering support for female visitors.

“We are concerned because the police had listed 12 cases of sexual assault by this weekend,” Kristina Gottlöber of the group told newspaper the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Two of these cases are being investigated to see if they were rape.

In the first weekend, the tent saw 31 women and girls come in looking for help. In the most cases, these women had drunk too much or become separated from their friends and family.

There have been two cases of domestic violence and two men have also been charged with sexual assault.

One of these cases was on the first Sunday of the festival, when a man followed a tourist and assaulted her when she was passed out on a park bench. Police arrested him, and the woman was cared for initially by the Sichere Wiesen volunteers.

Other people offering their services at the help tent assist visitors in finding their friends, or helping them to get home.

Most commonly it is young women and tourists who come looking for help. “They don’t know how things work and think that nothing could happen to them,” Gottlöber told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Of course, women should have fun at the Oktoberfest but remember that it can be dangerous.”

The Local/jcw

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Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

The accusations come at a time of strained relations between Moscow and the West following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the European Union’s support for Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a newly concluded government investigation found that a cyberattack targeting members of the Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28.

APT28 “is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia”, Baerbock told reporters during a visit to Australia.

“In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyberattacks in countries around the world. Russia denies being behind such actions.

The hacking attack on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD party was made public last year. Hackers exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to compromise e-mail accounts, according to Berlin.

Berlin on Friday summoned the acting charge d’affaires of the Russian embassy over the incident.

The Russian embassy in Germany said its envoy “categorically rejected the accusations that Russian state structures were involved in the given incident… as unsubstantiated and groundless”.

Arms, aerospace targeted: Berlin

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the cyber campaign was orchestrated by Russia’s military intelligence service GRU and began in 2022. It also targeted German companies in the armaments and aerospace sectors, she said.

Such cyberattacks are “a threat to our democracy, national security and our free societies”, she told a joint news conference in Prague with her Czech counterpart Vit Rakusan.

“We are calling on Russia again to stop these activities,” Faeser added.

Czech government officials said some of its state institutions had also been the target of cyberattacks blamed on APT28, again by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft Outlook in 2023.

Czech Interior Minister Rakusan said his country’s infrastructure had recently experienced “higher dozens” of such attacks.

“The Czech Republic is a target. In the long term, it has been perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy state,” he told reporters.

EU, NATO condemnation

The German and Czech findings triggered strong condemnation from the European Union.

“The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia’s continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

The EU would “make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia’s malicious behaviour in cyberspace”, he added.

State institutions, agencies and entities in other member states including in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden had been targeted by APT28 in the past, the statement added.

The latest accusations come a day after NATO expressed “deep concern” over Russia’s “hybrid actions” including disinformation, sabotage and cyber interference.

The row also comes as millions of Europeans prepare to go to the polls for the European Parliament elections in June, and concerns about foreign meddling are running high.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told AFP that “pointing a finger publicly at a specific attacker is an important tool to protect national interests”.

One of the most high-profile incidents so far blamed on Fancy Bear was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. It forced the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

In 2020, the EU imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the APT28 group over the incident.

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