The Hamburg Regional Court has sentenced a 34-year-old Afghan migrant to two years’ probation for rape and several counts of aggravated assault against his former partner, an 18-year-old girl. German social media accounts have already sharply criticized the sentence, arguing it is another example of lenient sentencing in the face of serious crimes.
While the defendant initially admitted only to striking her with his hand, he ultimately confessed to the remaining charges. The court convicted him of four counts of assault, one count of aggravated assault, and one count of rape. As a condition of his probation, he must pay an additional €3,000 in compensation after paying another €2,000 in damages to the victim before the verdict.
Judge Malte Wellhausen detailed that the six offenses occurred between autumn 2016 and spring 2018. The trial faced substantial procedural delays, leading the court to count four months of the sentence of the Afghan man, who works in IT, as already served.
The court found the Afghan man physically assaulted his former girlfriend on five separate occasions, including an incident where he used a leather belt and another instance where he choked her to the point of respiratory distress. The rape took place in October 2016, approximately ten years ago.
The defendant first met the18-year-old high school graduate from Lower Saxony through an online platform. Physical abuse began only months after their initial meeting, starting when he struck her face. When the young woman reacted with fear and tears, the defendant remarked, “That wasn’t even hard.”
Routine physical assaults followed over minor issues, as well as disputes stemming from the victim’s parents opposing her relationship with the Afghan-born defendant.
The sexual assault occurred in his bedroom while both were in bed, leaving the victim with physical pain and bleeding. Despite the nature of the assault, she did not initially identify the incident as rape. Over the following months, the physical abuse persisted, including the incident involving the leather belt while the woman reportedly blamed herself for the incidents, according to German newspaper Welt.
In August 2017, after overhearing her covertly speaking with a friend on the phone, the defendant struck her face, causing her nose to bleed, and choked her violently by the neck. Rather than reaching out for assistance, the victim suffered severe distress, blamed herself, and engaged in self-harm.
During a subsequent trip to the United States, the defendant proposed to her, and she accepted out of fear. She eventually managed to break away from the relationship in 2018 by relocating her life to Denmark.
The criminal investigation began after the woman noticed a missing person report that featured a photograph of a garden in the Poppenbüttel district of Hamburg, where she had previously resided with the defendant. Concerned for the safety of the woman shown in the report, she eventually spoke with police officers and detailed the abuse she had endured, prompting authorities to open a criminal case.
Judicial findings later confirmed that the disappearance of the other woman was entirely unrelated to the defendant. Authorities proceeded with the investigation despite the victim’s reluctance to participate from Denmark. Further delays arose due to pandemic border closures and the illness of an expert witness, pushing the formal filing of charges to 2024.
The victim in the case tried to avoid the trial altogether and only joined in for video testimony after facing potential prosecution. The court ultimately found her account credible due to its memory detail and complete lack of malicious intent toward the accused.
Defense lawyer Claudia Krüger was positive about the ruling, calling it “a judgment with a sense of proportion. I am very satisfied.“
While the defense had argued for a suspended sentence, prosecutors had requested a prison term of three years and two months. The defense won out but the sentence is subject to appeal.