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CRIME

Man found guilty of raping student in Munich university toilets

A 26-year-old man who raped a student in a restroom of Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich was sentenced to six years and nine months in a secure psychiatric unit on Friday.

Man found guilty of raping student in Munich university toilets
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich. Photo: DPA

Prosecutors accused Süleyman D. of forcing his way into the women’s toilet’s at the prestigious university in January, where he raped student Sabine L., the Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) reports.

Two days later, he returned to the toilets at the university campus on Geschwister-Scholl-Platz and tried to rape another female student. On that occasion, the woman was able to push him away after he barged into her toilet stall.

Both victims appeared as plaintiffs during the case.

Süleyman D. reportedly admitted to the crimes during police interrogation, but stayed silent during the court proceedings.

His lawyers called for him to be acquitted of the crime, based on a plea of limited culpability. They asked instead that he be given psychiatric treatment. A court medical examination came to the conclusion that Süleyman D. has severe mental illness and suffers from hallucinations.

Prosecutors called for a sentence of seven years and ten months in a psychiatric unit. They also accepted that he bore diminished responsibility for the crime due to his mental condition.

CRIME

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

A 17-year-old has turned himself in to police in Germany after an attack on a lawmaker that the country's leaders decried as a threat to democracy.

Teenager turns self in after attack on German politician

The teenager reported to police in the eastern city of Dresden early Sunday morning and said he was “the perpetrator who had knocked down the SPD politician”, police said in a statement.

Matthias Ecke, 41, European parliament lawmaker for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), was set upon by four attackers as he put up EU election posters in Dresden on Friday night, according to police.

Ecke was “seriously injured” and required an operation after the attack, his party said.

Scholz on Saturday condemned the attack as a threat to democracy.

“We must never accept such acts of violence,” he said.

Ecke, who is head of the SPD’s European election list in the Saxony region, was just the latest political target to be attacked in Germany.

Police said a 28-year-old man putting up posters for the Greens had been “punched” and “kicked” earlier in the evening on the same Dresden street.

Last week two Greens deputies were abused while campaigning in Essen in western Germany and another was surrounded by dozens of demonstrators in her car in the east of the country.

According to provisional police figures, 2,790 crimes were committed against politicians in Germany in 2023, up from 1,806 the previous year, but less than the 2,840 recorded in 2021, when legislative elections took place.

A group of activists against the far right has called for demonstrations against the attack on Ecke in Dresden and Berlin on Sunday, Der Spiegel magazine said.

According to the Tagesspiegel newspaper, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser is planning to call a special conference with Germany’s regional interior ministers next week to address violence against politicians.

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