Austria: Newspaper report on Afghan gang rapists becomes political issue

Now things are moving after all: After eXXpress research revealed that there was not even a press release in the case of a gang rape in Vorarlberg, the matter is now becoming a political issue. The Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) wants to refer the case to the Vorarlberg state parliament.

Should this shocking crime be covered up? Five Afghan nationals are strongly suspected of having raped an Austrian woman in a refugee home in Bludenz. There was no press release about this crime – apparently the case was supposed to remain hidden. The Feldkirch public prosecutor’s office confirmed the arrests in an interview with eXXpress.

Later, the Austrian Broadcasting Corporation (ORF) also reacted, writing of an “incident in the homeless milieu” and referring to the fact that the crime “happened several months ago”. The five Afghans are being investigated on suspicion of sexual abuse of a defenceless or mentally impaired person.

The woman is said to have visited the men in the refugee home. Alcohol and drugs are said to have been consumed extensively – although this is prohibited in this facility. Nevertheless, all five Afghans suspected of the crime have now been remanded in custody!

Nothing is known about the age of the alleged perpetrators and the victim to this day. And how did the cover-up of the case that lasted for months come about? The spokesperson of the Vorarlberg Regional Police Directorate, Horst Spitzhofer, passes the responsibility on to the public prosecutor’s office, but denies a deliberate withholding of information on the brutal gang rape: The facts of the case had initially been so unclear that it had not been possible to go public with certain facts in February. Spitzhofer refers to the protection of victims!

It could also be due to this flimsy argumentation that the case is now also becoming a political issue: In a statement, Christof Bitschi, head of the FPÖ Vorarlberg, expressed his anger that the case “should obviously have been kept secret from the people of Vorarlberg”. The FPÖ regional party leader announced that a parliamentary question would be put in the Vorarlberg state parliament, stating that it needed to be clarified that there was no police press release on the incident.

https://exxpress.at/exxpress-recherche-zu-afghanischen-massen-vergewaltigern-wird-zu-politikum/