Month: May 2026

A Dutch teenager, aged between 16 and 18, underwent euthanasia in 2023, just four and a half years after receiving a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder.

According to the annual report of the Regional Euthanasia Review Committees of the Netherlands, the young man described his existence as “joyless,” with persistent anxiety, mood problems, sensory hypersensitivity, and difficulties fitting into the world.

Each day was “an ordeal he had to overcome,” to the point that in his final weeks he remained bedridden most of the time. The doctor who evaluated the case stated he had “no doubt” about his mental capacity to make the decision and concluded that there was no prospect of improvement.

This case, revealed in the 2024-2025 review report and widely covered by international media, illustrates the expansion of euthanasia in the Netherlands beyond terminal physical illnesses.

Dutch legislation, a pioneer since 2002, allows assisted dying for “unbearable” suffering with no prospect of improvement, including psychiatric conditions.

For minors aged 16 to 17, only parental consultation is required, not explicit consent. In 2023, 138 cases of euthanasia for psychiatric reasons were recorded, rising to 219 in 2024, with a notable increase among young people: between 2020 and 2024, cases in those under 30 years of age increased from 5 to 30.

The teenager was not a case of “low-functioning” autism. Sources describe him as having abilities that allowed him some autonomy, but he faced challenges typical of the spectrum: sensory overload, cognitive rigidity, social difficulties, and isolation.

Instead of intensifying therapeutic support, educational adaptations, behavioral interventions, or long-term social integration—options that have proven to improve the quality of life for many high-functioning autistic individuals—the medical system endorsed euthanasia as a definitive solution. The official report emphasizes that the suffering was considered “untreatable.”

Experts have documented that between 2012 and 2021 at least 39 people with autism and/or intellectual disability received euthanasia in the Netherlands, frequently motivated by loneliness, lack of resilience, mental rigidity and hypersensitivity (factors directly linked to autism in many cases).

Cases like that of Zoraya ter Beek, a 29-year-old woman with autism, depression, and personality disorder who opted for euthanasia in 2024, show how the diagnosis of autism is intertwined with psychological suffering to justify assisted death.

The Netherlands recorded more than 10,000 euthanasia cases in 2025, exceeding 6% of all deaths. While the majority were due to serious physical illnesses in the elderly, the increase in psychiatric requests among young people is alarming.

Critics argue that offering death as “treatment” for people with neurodevelopmental disorders sends the message that certain lives are less worthy of being lived and supported. Instead of investing more in specialized therapies, adapted housing, supported employment, and inclusive communities, the state legitimizes the elimination of the patient.

The case of the autistic teenager reinforces concerns that euthanasia for mental suffering, when applied to minors or young adults recently diagnosed, crosses a dangerous line. Four and a half years after his diagnosis, a young man who was still in the prime of his life—a stage in which many autistic individuals learn coping strategies and build a meaningful life with the right support—was approved to receive a lethal injection.

This was not a terminally ill patient with unbearable physical pain, but a human being with a neurodevelopmental disorder that generates real challenges but which, historically, has not been considered incurable in the sense of justifying death.

The Netherlands has progressively normalized euthanasia: from terminal cases to mental suffering, from adults to adolescents, and now with reports of its application in autism.

This logic raises an uncomfortable question: if society does not offer real hope or sufficient resources to those struggling with autism and mental comorbidities, isn’t the State indirectly incentivizing the easiest way out instead of the most humane one?

gatewayhispanic

Sex and drugs, but no gas or meat.

Amsterdam is known to be an ultra-liberal city, with legalized prostitution, Coffee shops selling marijuana and hashish, while hallucinogenic truffles can be found in ‘smart shops’.

But in the public spaces of the climate change-obsessed ‘Venice of the North’, you won’t find advertisements for ‘dangerous’ gas cars or meat products.

Amsterdam is about to become the latest big city to ban adverts for fossil fuels in order to fight climate change.

But are bans a good idea, and do they make any difference?

📺 Find out on The Climate Question – watch on YouTube https://t.co/pwZ2o237ap pic.twitter.com/UAfRVbzafx

— BBC World Service (@bbcworldservice) April 30, 2026

The New York Times reported:

“On May 1, Amsterdam became the first capital city in the world to ban ads for fossil fuel products and meat. It is part of the city’s efforts to discourage consumption of goods linked with high carbon emissions.

Ads for airlines, cruises, and faraway destinations are no longer allowed, because they implicitly promote the burning of fossil fuels. Ads for beef, chicken, pork and fish are also banned, because of the environmental harms caused by animal agriculture.”

#FOCUS – Cities around the world are clearing their billboards of flight ads, cruise ships and petrol cars.

This in the name of the fight against global warming. Amsterdam is latest city to join the movement, becoming the first capital in the world to approve legal ban on… pic.twitter.com/9n7GJsVjfy

— FRANCE 24 English (@France24_en) April 28, 2026

“Amsterdam’s law applies to city-owned properties and public spaces, such as buses and bus shelters, benches, trams, trains and metro stations, and billboards. Advertising in privately owned stores and in media such as newspapers, radio and online formats is exempt.”

Laws banning fossil fuel ads began in the Hague, and when the Dutch travel trade association and several travel agencies sued, the judge said that ‘the health of its citizens and the climate was more important than commercial interests’.

“Amsterdam passed a motion to ban ads for fossil fuel and high emissions travel in 2020, but it wasn’t legally binding and carried no penalties. The new law gives the city enforcement teeth, and includes the meat advertising ban. This year will largely be considered a grace period, but fines can still be issued to scofflaws.”

🇳🇱‼️🚨 Cocaine soonnlegal in Amsterdam?

Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema has called for the regulation of the sale and use of cocaine to undermine the economics of criminal enterprises that she said are racking up “billions” in profit.

“Let us conclude that hundreds of years of… pic.twitter.com/YlR4wfnAq9

— Lord Bebo (@MyLordBebo) January 28, 2024

In the meantime, Amsterdam’s mayor Femke Halsema is generating controversy across Europe for suggesting that regulating the cocaine market could help the fight against organized crime.

We Rave You reported:

“Speaking at a European congress on organized crime, attended by ministers and policymakers from across the continent, Halsema argued that current drug enforcement strategies have failed to stop the flow of cocaine into Europe. According to the mayor, decades of seizures and law enforcement efforts have not significantly disrupted the illegal trade.

“’Let us face the facts: the war on drugs isn’t working’, Halsema said during the event. ‘Seizing drugs is not working. And cocaine regulation isn’t in the picture either. I hope we can agree that we need to formulate an alternative strategy’.”

thegatewaypundit

Attempted murder, dangerous interference with traffic and unlawful possession of a weapon – the charges against the 22-year-old are serious. The man is alleged to have fired indiscriminately at cars on the B 16 motorway in September. He has now been charged.
The case caused a stir last September: over a three-day period, a man is alleged to have fired at vehicles on the B16 near Dillingen an der Donau using an air rifle. According to the public prosecutor’s office, his sole aim was to provoke accidents. Now the young man, who is suspected of Islamist extremism, must stand trial for attempted murder. As the broadcasters BR and SWR reported in November, he was part of an Islamist chat group in which fantasies of violence were shared and enemy stereotypes propagated.

The Bavarian Central Office for Combating Extremism and Terrorism (ZET), which operates under the Office of the Attorney General, has brought a murder charge before the Augsburg Regional Court. The authority accuses the 22-year-old Turkish national of attempted murder in 23 cases, endangering road traffic and unlawful possession of a firearm.

According to the indictment, the young man is alleged to have fired an air rifle at passing vehicles from the side of the road in mid-September whilst wearing camouflage clothing. In doing so, he is said to have intended to distract the drivers to such an extent that they would veer off the road and be killed or at least seriously injured in the resulting accidents.

In the area of the crime scene, the two lanes are not physically separated, and the speed limit is 100 km/h. The danger was correspondingly high, it was stated.

Although the drivers were startled by the loud bangs of the gunshots, there were no accidents or injuries because the drivers swerved or braked but remained in control of their vehicles at all times. The vehicles sustained a total of over €33,000 in damage.

During the police investigations, evidence emerged pointing to an extremist motive. Consequently, the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office took over the case last autumn. Investigators believe the motive was Islamist.

The shooter is said to have shown sympathies for the jihadist militia IS and to have glorified the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, in the USA. He is said to have deliberately chosen September 11 or the days around it as the date of the attack. The accused is said to have wanted to kill “infidels”.

The suspect was arrested a few days after the incident. He has been in pre-trial detention ever since. The Augsburg Regional Court must now decide whether to allow the charges of attempted murder in 23 cases to proceed to trial.

BR24

While Western leaders push to bolster defense capabilities amid perceived rising threats, public willingness to enlist has lagged behind, forcing several countries to explore unconventional recruitment solutions.

Canada’s government last year changed its requirements for enlisting in the armed forces, accepting recruits with some medical conditions that would previously have been disqualifying, dropping aptitude test requirements, and implementing a program for immigrants with legal residency to join the country’s military.

A leaked internal report published by Juno News this week revealed that one French-language platoon, composed of 83% non-citizens, suffered from serious cohesion problems, including poor French fluency, a lack of respect toward female Canadian Armed Forces members, and infighting between cadets from Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire.

Some of the platoons trained in 2025 were made up of “candidates with as little as three months residency in Canada, leading to a significant culture shock as candidates had not yet acclimatized to Canadian society, let alone Canadian military culture,” Lieutenant-Colonel Marc Kieley, commandant of the Canadian Forces Leadership and Recruit School (CFLRS) in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec, wrote in the leaked report, quoted by the Globe and Mail. 

“For many candidates it is the first time they have lived with members of a different sex, and for some it is also the first time they have been expected to treat women as their peers,” the internal report stated.

In addition, the new residents had not always left their native hostilities behind, resulting in accusations of racism as well as infighting between cadets from different African countries.

A significant number of the immigrant recruits also were confused about what they had signed up for and complained about not being able to return home after basic training, when they were stationed elsewhere in the country. 

Several European countries already incorporate foreigners into their militaries, but a growing number are exploring expanded roles for fairly recent immigrants amid recruitment shortfalls in the native populations. France’s French Foreign Legion—which, granted, is a special case—stands out as the most open program, accepting volunteers from nearly any nationality worldwide without requiring prior citizenship or long-term residency. Spain recruits from Latin American countries with historical ties, often requiring legal residency but providing a path to citizenship for relatively recent arrivals from those nations. The UK draws from Commonwealth citizens, many of whom are recent or first-generation immigrants, though strict annual caps limit intake.

Ireland is one of the countries currently most actively considering recruiting fairly new immigrants to the country’s military. In early 2026, the Irish government, along with the defense forces, evaluated proposals to fast-track citizenship for foreign nationals who enlist and complete a set term of service. Germany has also floated the idea of opening recruitment to the Bundeswehr to EU citizens and potentially wider non-citizens, though citizenship is still generally required. 

Across Europe, these moves are driven by recruitment crises, with analysts suggesting structured citizenship-for-service pathways for recent immigrants. The Canadian experience suggests the problems associated with such a recruitment policy should not be underestimated.

europeanconservative

An Iraqi father accused of beating, imprisoning, and threatening to kill his daughter after she refused an arranged marriage has been arrested in Sweden on a European warrant issued by Italian authorities.

The 52-year-old man was tracked down by Taranto State Police after the authorities in southern Italy opened an investigation into domestic abuse and forced marriage following a complaint from the young woman last November.

As reported by Il Giornale, prosecutors say the victim told officers her father had demanded she marry a Kurdish man selected by him and had threatened her with death if she resisted or tried to flee abroad.

The woman had traveled from Iraq to join her family in Taranto, but investigators say she soon found herself trapped in what police described as a family campaign to force her into submission.

According to the allegations, her relatives sided with her father because they believed she wanted to live in a way that was too “Western” and incompatible with their cultural expectations.

When she refused to obey, her father allegedly held her captive inside an apartment in the southern Italian city and subjected her to violence that left her with injuries requiring 15 days to recover.

Police also believe the pressure became so severe that the young woman was forced to give up work and began a life of isolation, fuelled by fear over her safety.

The young woman gave evidence under protected arrangements before being moved to a secure facility, where she remains.

Investigators later discovered the father had left Italy for Sweden. Swedish authorities arrested him on the European warrant issued after a precautionary detention order by a judge in Taranto.

The case is the latest in a string of forced marriage scandals across Europe involving migrant families accused of using threats, violence, and isolation to control young women who refuse marriages arranged by relatives.

In October last year, a Bangladeshi couple living in Rimini was placed under house arrest after prosecutors accused them of forcing their daughter into marriage in Bangladesh and subjecting her to threats, abuse, and drugs intended to induce pregnancy.

The 20-year-old woman was taken into protective custody after allegedly being tricked into traveling to Bangladesh under the false pretense of visiting a sick relative.

Once there, prosecutors say, her parents confiscated her documents and forced her to marry a wealthy man more than 20 years older than her. The wedding was held on Dec. 17, 2024.

Italian investigators allege she was threatened and abused before and after the ceremony. She was also reportedly given medication intended to promote pregnancy and sedatives to reduce her resistance to sex with her husband.

The young woman secretly began taking contraceptives and eventually managed to contact a health center in Rimini through Instagram, triggering contact with Italian authorities. She later convinced her mother to bring her back to Italy by claiming she would feel “more at peace” and ready to have children if she returned.

Forced marriage fears have also escalated in Germany, where Berlin authorities warned last summer that the school holidays are a danger period for young people being taken abroad and married against their will.

Women’s rights advocate Seyran Ates warned that the problem was growing amid mass immigration and the spread of parallel communities.

“I fear the numbers will continue to rise,” she told German broadcaster RBB, as cited by Junge Freiheit.

“In Germany, we speak of a parallel society of the Muslim community,” she said, adding that forced marriage is a tool used by “archaic patriarchal societies” to enforce religious norms and control female sexuality.

Berlin’s Neukolln district also sounded the alarm, warning that young people could be taken out of the country during the holidays to be married in their parents’ country of origin, often with no clear way back.

“Most of the affected girls and boys grew up in Germany,” the district office said.

District Mayor Martin Hikel said, “Forced and early marriages are human rights violations that we do not tolerate. But, we know that they are a reality for Neukolln’s young people.”

In Greece, a government minister recently described another horrifying case from the 2019 migrant crisis, claiming a teenage girl in the Moria camp on Lesbos was almost stoned after refusing a forced marriage.

Eirini Agapidaki said the camp had descended into “absolute chaos” at the time.

“I honestly don’t want to talk about what I saw and what I found there, because they are very, very ugly things,” she said. “They expose the country.”

Agapidaki claimed the girl had effectively been sold into marriage by her mother.

“A mother had agreed to marry off her 15-year-old daughter to someone there,” she said. “And because the girl resisted, the community organized a stoning.”

The minister said she only learned of the case after the girl had been removed from the camp and placed in a shelter for unaccompanied minors.

rmx

Prominent Vatican journalists Edward Pentin and Diane Montagna decried the Vatican’s recent reception and celebration of the Anglican female “archbishop” of Canterbury as scandalous and “absurd.”

Montagna on Monday quoted from Pope Leo XIV’s address to Sarah Mullally in which he referred to “new problems” that “have arisen in recent decades, rendering the pathway to full communion” between the Catholic Church and Anglicans “more difficult to discern.”

“Of course, chief among these new problems is the fact that a woman dressed in liturgical attire is now being passed off – and celebrated by the Vatican and even by the Pope – as someone who seemingly has valid Orders when she doesn’t – first because she’s a woman and second because she’s an Anglican,” Montagna wrote.

She highlighted the fact that Archbishop Flavio Pace, Secretary of the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity, had gone so far as to “bow” before her and make the Sign of the Cross “as though receiving a real blessing from her” despite the fact that she doesn’t have valid orders.

“Absolutely absurd,” Montagna remarked in her post to Twitter.

In a Substack piece published Monday, Pentin similarly condemned the Vatican for receiving Mullally as if she had valid Orders and for neglecting any opportunity of fraternal correction of her errors.

Pentin shared that Pope Leo, in his address to Mullally, said that it would “be a scandal if Christians failed to continue working towards overcoming their divisions, however intractable they are.”

“But there is another kind of scandal, arguably more serious in the quest for Christian unity: portraying something as true that is evidently not, and trumpeting it from the rooftops,” Pentin commented.

He noted that while Anglican orders have been declared “absolutely null and utterly void” by Pope Leo XIII in Apostolicae Curae (1896), Catholic prelates gave “precisely the opposite impression” during Mullally’s visit to Rome. 

“From the moment she arrived, Vatican officials rolled out the red carpet, extending courtesies that went well beyond diplomatic hospitality and included gestures laden with ecclesial significance,” said Pentin, referring in part to Archbishop Pace’s bowing and making the Sign of the Cross as Mullally gave a “blessing” at the tomb of St. Peter.

He pointed out that she was also permitted to lead a public “moment of prayer” with the Pope in the Chapel of Urban VIII in the Apostolic Palace.

Pope Leo also “recalled his own episcopal motto, In Illo uno unum – in Christ, we are one” during his address to Mullally, Pentin noted.

“But can there ever be authentic ecclesial unity with a communion that lacks valid orders and promotes moral teachings at odds with Catholic doctrine, including women’s ordination?” Pentin asked rhetorically.

The Vatican journalist also questioned whether any good can come from receiving Mullally while entirely failing to address the errors of Anglicanism, which have grown more grievous over time. Mullally herself has “described herself in the past as ‘pro-choice rather than pro-life’ and supports blessings for same-sex couples,” Pentin noted.

The “cumulative effect” of the Vatican’s approach of dialogue without correction “has been to elevate symbolic closeness above doctrinal clarity,” which has likely only encouraged the Anglicans to persist in their errors, Pentin said.

“By publicly treating Sarah Mullally as a valid archbishop – allowing her to lead prayers with the Pope, bless a real archbishop in the Clementine Chapel, and officiate Anglican vespers in a historic Roman Church – the Vatican is serving to affirm her in her ecclesial ‘trans identity and error,’” he said.

“But if unity is to be real, it must be grounded in truth. Without that foundation, even the most gracious encounters risk becoming, in the end, the very stumbling blocks Pope Leo warns against, rather than steps toward communion.”

lifesitenews

Exactly fifty years ago, France introduced the principle of family reunification for immigrants who had come to work in France. Over the years, the measure has taken on symbolic significance as a sign of an out-of-control migration policy, making it highly unpopular today. But which politician will dare, in the coming years, to tackle what is also considered a taboo in France, the principle  of the “land of welcome”?

On April 29, 1976, family reunification, as it remains in force in France today, was introduced under a centre-right government, with Jacques Chirac as Prime Minister and Valéry Giscard d’Estaing as President of the Republic.

The decree established the general framework for family reunification, allowing a foreign national legally resident in France to bring over their spouse and minor children. Other legal provisions already existed prior to this decree. Since the 1920s, a period when significant labour migration was flowing into France—which had suffered from a shortage of workers following the Great War—mainly from Poland and Italy, a ‘family reunification’ scheme existed. This was abolished in the 1970s, before being reinstated by Jacques Chirac and his then minister of labour, Michel Durafour.

The possibility for an immigrant worker in France to bring their family over is subject to certain conditions: they must have been legally resident in France for at least 18 months, must be able to prove stable financial resources and suitable accommodation, must respect public order and comply with specific French cultural norms: acceptance of monogamous marriage and gender equality. It was impossible, for example, to bring over a second wife. What seemed self-evident in 1976 is no longer taken for granted today, and there have been numerous abuses.

Fifty years on, the family reunification scheme has sparked widespread hostility among the French public. According to official figures, 16,429 people are estimated to have benefited from family reunification in the strict sense in 2024. In 2025, it accounted for only 5% of new entry permits–compared with 23% in the year 2000. Immigration for family reasons, which is broader than ‘family reunification’ alone, remains very significant, but for other reasons: nearly half (47%) of family visas are issued to “family members of French nationals” (spouses or parents of French children). Family structures have also changed: today, immigrants arrive in France as single people and start families later, whilst living there. The image of the family ‘left to the bled (the Algerian village)’ joining the father who has come to work in France is disappearing.

Whilst family reunification is not the primary channel for immigration, it serves as a symbol: it embodies the idea that one can enter French territory and enjoy the benefits of settling in France without contributing to the national wealth. “It is believed to be unproductive and [the beneficiaries] difficult to integrate, in contrast to so-called “selective” migration of skilled workers,” explains Julia Descamps, a researcher at the National Demographic Institute (INED).

According to a recent poll, 57% of French people would like to see an end to this policy. On the right, the National Rally and Reconquête have long called for its abolition or for stricter regulation of its implementation. But this position is also championed in the centre: at a time when Austria was debating the possible suspension of family reunification, Macronist MP Maud Bregeon felt that there was “a real problem with family reunification in France”, too, adding: “It is an initiative from which we should obviously take inspiration.”

The issue will certainly be on the table during the debates of the 2027 presidential campaign.

europeanconservative

Scotland’s far-left Housing Minister has claimed that the country needs more immigration in a debate ahead of the upcoming elections for the locally devolved parliament.

Immigration has shot to the forefront of the May 7th race for control of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, as the leftist Scottish National Party (SNP) Housing Minister Mairi McAllan declared that Scotland is receiving “too few” migrants and that more should be imported to bolster the economy.

Appearing on a debate held on BBC Scotland, she added that Scotland is a “welcoming nation” and that immigration is “good for our economy, necessary for our economy, for our hospitality sector, health and social care, and our businesses.”

“Difficulties have been inflamed, they have been exploited, they have been exploited by the parties sitting next to me here, which I think has created an atmosphere of fear,” she added.

Reform UK Glasgow City Councillor Thomas Kerr said that the system is at a “breaking point” and that “enough is enough” with mass migration, pointing to the housing crisis in his city, which he claimed has been exacerbated by the SNP government’s asylum policies.

According to council statistics from March, Glasgow currently houses 9,337 homeless people in temporary accommodation. Out of that, 5,948 were classified as “refugees”, many of whom are being housed in hotels at taxpayer expense.

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨

SNP’s Màiri McAllan, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Housing, admits she wants more immigration!

Only Reform UK will reverse mass immigration. ✅ pic.twitter.com/lPqdP9bA6Z

— Reform UK (@reformparty_uk) April 27, 2026

The scheme of housing migrants in hotels has come with some instances of violence, including in 2020 when a Sudanese national, Badreddin Abadlla Adam, went on a stabbing spree at his Glasgow hotel, injuring six people, including a police officer. It was reported that migrant had been dissatisfied with the free food provided, as macaroni and cheese was not “culturally appropriate”.

According to a BBC Scotland News opinion poll earlier this year, immigration ranked fourth among voters’ most important issues, behind the cost of living, health care, and the economy.

The growing concern about the mass migration agenda in Scotland, which has resulted in around 10 per cent of the population being foreign-born, has bolstered support for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party, which has seen its poll ratings rise significantly.

After having won zero seats in the previous election, Reform currently stands tied for second place with the left-wing Labour Party, with both polling around 20 per cent.

The SNP is still the clear favourite at around 35 per cent; however, it remains to be seen if the leftist-separatist party will win enough votes to form a government on its own next month.

breitbart

Further allegations have come to light in the case of the alleged rape of a 16-year-old girl at a youth centre in Berlin. A youth welfare office employee is said to have refused to allow a policewoman to intervene because she was too “harsh” towards Muslims.

The investigation into the allegation of a cover-up of an alleged rape at a youth centre in the Berlin district of Neukölln is becoming increasingly convoluted. A staff member at the Neukölln Youth Welfare Office is alleged to have refused the assistance of a police officer from the prevention team of the relevant police precinct.

Sevil Yildirim, the coordinator of a neighbouring girls’ centre which was also attended by the victim, is said to have wanted to call in two policewomen to investigate the rape. “She found one of the officers I suggested too harsh,” Yildirim told a team of investigators from the newspaper Tagesspiegel and the ZDF television programme Frontal about the employee. According to the coordinator, the Youth Welfare Office apparently had a problem with the fact that this officer took a “very hard stance” against Muslim youths.

The 16-year-old victim is alleged to have been raped by a 17-year-old in November 2025 in the garden of the youth centre on Wutzkyallee, which the facility shares with the girls’ centre “RosaMinta”.

The suspect is said to be a regular visitor to the youth centre and, in mid-January, to have been involved, along with other young people, in further sexual assaults on the 16-year-old.

News of the rape had become known internally when, a few days after the assaults in January, the victim confided in social workers at the neighbouring girls’ centre about the latest incident.

What followed was a series of discussions between staff from “RosaMinta” and the youth centre where the incident took place. The case came to public attention when the newspaper Bild first reported on it on March 11.

There was widespread horror, partly because accusations were immediately levelled at staff at the Neukölln Youth Welfare Office for failing to take action against the alleged perpetrators. It was reportedly claimed that this was done to avoid stigmatising Muslim youths. The 17-year-old alleged to have committed the rape is also said to be a Muslim.

The State Criminal Police Office and the Berlin Public Prosecutor’s Office are now investigating the case. A commission of independent experts, which was set up in mid-April, is due to present an initial interim report on the events in May.

Yet the accounts of the social and youth workers involved, as well as those of the Neukölln Youth Welfare Office, regarding the scandalous events could scarcely be more contradictory. This applies above all to the allegation against the youth centre and the Youth Welfare Office that they deliberately refrained from filing a criminal complaint against the alleged rapist.

Furthermore, the Youth Welfare Office is said to have failed to initiate a ‘child protection report’, as is mandatory in the case of such serious allegations as rape. Youth Affairs Councillor Sarah Nagel (The左派) was forced to admit this failure on March 21 in response to a question from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) during a meeting of the Youth Welfare Committee.

Several criminal complaints have been filed with the public prosecutor’s office against Nagel, the councillor responsible for the youth welfare office. Even with the support of the AfD, the CDU parliamentary group lacks the necessary majority in the Neukölln District Assembly to secure Nagel’s dismissal, which the group is seeking to push through. The Left Party, the Greens and the SPD have expressed their “disapproval” of Nagel’s role in the youth centre affair, but wish to leave it at that.

Nevertheless, the public prosecutor’s office is continuing to investigate whether the initial suspicion against Councillor Nagel is well-founded, the authority told FOCUS online on Thursday in response to an enquiry. Should this be the case, an official criminal investigation will be launched against her.

Those involved are completely at odds over why neither the youth centre nor the youth welfare office filed a criminal complaint regarding the rape.
There is disagreement over what happened following the incident. According to Sevil Yildirim from the neighbouring girls’ centre, it was the 16-year-old victim’s “express wish” that the youth centre on Wutzkyallee should contact the police and file a report. However, this wish was repeatedly disregarded by the staff at the youth centre.
According to research by the ‘Tagesspiegel’, staff at the youth centre are said to have repeatedly claimed in various internal memos regarding the investigation of the events that they did not know the names of either the victim or the suspect. The staff cite precisely this to justify why they did not comply with the girls’ centre’s insistence on filing a criminal complaint.

However, Yilderim from the neighbouring girls’ centre vehemently contradicts the youth centre’s account. “The girl’s name was known.” The same applies to the name of the alleged perpetrator. The staff at the youth centre “knew immediately which boy was involved”. It had been discussed among them that the group behind the sexual assaults in mid-January was also believed to have been involved, at least indirectly, in the alleged rape in November.

In an email, which is one of hundreds of conversation transcripts, a youth centre staff member writes to the head of the girls’ centre, however, that he can “clearly” remember the girl – including the “unpleasant situation in the chill-out room”, where further sexual assaults had taken place. “I don’t want to name names, but I think you know what I’m talking about.”

FOCUS online