Read news from:
Austria
SHARE
COPY LINK

CRIME

Date-rape drugs wreck German chancellor’s summer bash

At least nine women were given a date-rape drug at an invite-only event attended by Chancellor Olaf Scholz and MPs, his Social Democratic Party (SPD) said Saturday.

Published: 9 July 2022 16:54 CEST
Updated: 10 July 2022 09:22 CEST
Date-rape drugs wreck German chancellor's summer bash
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's attended the SDP event in question last week. Photo: John MACDOUGALL/AFP

SPD co-leader Lars Klingbeil said he was “shocked” at the news.

“It makes me angry such a thing could happen at an event organised by the SPD,” he told the Die Welt daily.

He added that he hoped those responsible would be detained and investigated.

“There’s quite a lot of emotion,” a spokesperson for the SPD’s parliamentary group told AFP, confirming a report in the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel.

Berlin police said officers were investigating allegations of serious bodily injuries after a 21-year-old woman filed a complaint following “a political party’s summer party”.

She went for hospital tests the following day, having only consumed food and non-alcoholic drinks at the event.

“I advise all those concerned to file a complaint,” added the group’s Katja Mast on Twitter.

The spokesperson did not rule out further cases adding to the nine already declared, according to the party.

The SPD sent out an email to all those invited to the party on Wednesday night condemning a “monstrous act which we immediately declared to parliamentary police”.

About 1,000 people joined the chancellor and MPs at the SPD’s traditional summer bash ahead of the parliamentary recess.

“It was an internal event. You could only get in with an invitation,” said the spokesperson. “There’s still a lot of uncertainty, the police are investigating.”

In a statement, Berlin police said the woman who filed the complaint had no memory of the party the next day, prompting her to obtain a medical exam and file the complaint.

The woman told police she felt nauseous and dizzy during the event after consuming food and non-alcoholic beverages.

The police said they had been so far informed of four other cases.

Date-rape drugs are usually used to spike drinks or food and can leave victims confused and unable to defend themselves against assault.

For 2021, Berlin police reported 22 cases involving date-rape drugs, according to the Berliner Zeitung daily.

The true number is likely to be far higher with victims often unable to recall exactly what happened or ashamed to make a complaint.

Also, with the Covid-19 pandemic, discotheques, nightclubs and party venues were closed for much of last year in the German capital.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

ANTI-SEMITISM

Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

Anti-Semitic acts rose sharply in Germany last year, especially after war broke out between Israel and Hamas in Gaza in October, according to new figures released on Tuesday.

Published: 25 June 2024 17:03 CEST
Germany sees sharp rise in anti-Semitic acts

The Federal Association of Research and Information Centres on Anti-Semitism (RIAS) documented 4,782 anti-Semitic “incidents” in 2023 – an increase of more than 80 per cent on the previous year.

More than half of the incidents – which included threats, physical attacks and vandalism – were registered after Palestinian militant group Hamas’s unprecedented October 7th attack on Israel, RIAS said.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency last week also published figures showing a new record in anti-Semitic crimes in 2023.

A total of 5,164 crimes were recorded during the year, the agency said, compared with 2,641 in 2022.

Anti-Semitic crimes with a “religious-ideological motivation” jumped to 492 from just 33 the previous year, with the vast majority committed after October 7.

Felix Klein, the government’s commissioner for the fight against anti-Semitism, said the RIAS figures were “absolutely catastrophic”.

The Hamas attack had acted as an “accelerant” for anti-Semitism in Germany, he told a press conference in Berlin.

“Jewish life in Germany is under greater threat than it has ever been since the Federal Republic of Germany was founded,” he said.

The Hamas attack resulted in the deaths of 1,195 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 37,600 people, also mostly civilians, Gaza’s health ministry said.

Islamophobic incidents also increased dramatically in Germany last year, according to a separate report published on Monday.

The CLAIM alliance against Islamophobia said it had registered 1,926 attacks on Muslims in 2023, compared with just under 900 in 2023.

These included verbal abuse, discrimination, physical violence and damage to property.

SHOW COMMENTS