An American tourist who was left disfigured after intervening in an assault on a woman aboard a German tram has claimed the country’s Government tried to cover up his attack.
John Rudat, a 21-year-old model, was slashed with a box cutter when he tried to protect two women from being “assaulted and harassed” in Dresden last August.
The attack left him with a scar stretching from beneath his eye, across his nose and through his upper lip, requiring extensive surgery.
The 21-year-old Syrian national who inflicted the life-changing injuries was handed a three-year youth prison sentence, while his accomplice, who also assaulted Mr Rudat, was suspended on probation for a year and eight months.
Speaking exclusively to GB News, Mr Rudat claimed a minister ordered him to “keep quiet” about his ordeal while he was in hospital.
He said the minister visited him in hospital and advised him to stay silent in the media.
The politician is also alleged to have promised that his attacker would face a “hard sentence”.
“The minister spoke to me off the books for about an hour in a private room in the hospital… he said: ‘John, we’re going to give them a hard sentence, don’t you worry but here’s what I need you to do.’
“I need you to keep quiet about it… Stay out of the media light and just let us handle it for you.”
Mr Rudat also slammed his attacker’s “lenient” sentence, branding it “insane.”.
Both he and his accomplice were sentenced under Germany’s youth criminal law.
“What everybody was really confused about, including my lawyer when I went over there to testify, was why these grown men were being tried under juvenile law. It doesn’t make sense.”
The two defendants had prior convictions including assaults on police officers and drug trafficking.
Both had subsidiary protection status in Germany at the time of the attack but this has since been revoked.
It remains unclear whether they will be deported.
Both defendants expressed remorse and apologised for their actions, claiming they had been drunk at the time of the attack.
“These two individuals had 10 prior accounts each… It’s insane,” Mr Rudat told The People’s Channel.
“Three years is very lenient. One year and eight months on probation suspended for the man who was assaulting the woman, with 100 hours of community service.
“What kind of verdict is that?”
Mr Rudat suggested that he had no regrets over intervening to try and defend the frightened girl.
When asked what he would like others to learn from his ordeal, he encouraged them to “step in no matter what.”
“I would be grateful if, the next time they saw violence or injustice happening in public, they stepped in no matter the consequences.
“Because the moment people refuse to stand up for each other as citizens is the moment we lose the sacred moral fabric of society.
“I hope people stand up for one another, both in Europe and here in America.”
GB News has approached Germany’s Interior Ministry for comment.