A German judge has acquitted a Turkish man of rape, despite the fact that he forced a woman to have sex with him, and left her incapacitated. The judge argued that in “the mentality of the Turkish cultural circle,” what the woman “had experienced as rape” might be considered merely “wild sex.” The judge refused to convict the rapist, because “no intention is demonstrable.”
According to the German daily newspaper Märkische Allgemeine (forgive the weak translation from Google Translate), the judge told the woman, “I believe Mrs. G. every word,” but added that “her tormentor probably did not know what he was doing to her.” On the night of August 18, 2016, the 23-year-old Turkish man sold drugs to the young woman and they consumed speed together.
He asked her to “go to bed with her” and she refused. According to the report, she had said he was “not her type.” But the drug dealer forced himself on her. Here’s how the paper described the encounter:
The young drug trader then complimented his customer, dragged her by the arm, threw her on the bed and pulled her out. He shoved his shoulders firmly against the metal bars at the head of his bed, his head jammed between two of them. The woman cried “stop” and resisted by scratching the accused at the back. But at some point she gave up and let her go as she put it. Several times he had entered her, the whole ordeal ended after four hours, when he got a call and suddenly had to leave, so that she too could go.
She refused, cried “stop” after he had grabbed her, and then finally she gave up. To most people, that sounds like rape. Indeed, the German paper reported that the Turkish man “carried on the sexual intercourse for hours on end so badly” that the girl could “not run properly for the next two weeks.”
“On the one hand, the magistrate’s court believed the victim, and on the other hand, the accused, according to which the wild sex was amicable,” the Märkische Allgemeine reported. Amicable? When the girl could not even run properly “for the next two weeks”?!
According to the report, the decisive question was “Could it be that the defendant thought you were in agreement?” To this, the poor girl — who had given up struggling after she had been raped — said “that could be.”
“She could not judge whether, with the mentality of the Turkish cultural circle, he had thought the happenings she experienced as rape might have been for wild sex,” the paper reported. “A conviction is not possible, because no intention is demonstrable.”
In other words, the judge acquitted a rapist — whom the court had “no doubt” forced the victim to have sex with him — on the grounds that his culture might not have considered the sex — which left the girl unable to run for two weeks — to be rape.
Oh, and of course, the defendant “denied from the beginning that he had raped” the girl. His defense? “He would not do such a thing, especially since he himself had a mother and a sister.” That clinches it! What American court would buy this shoddy defense?
According to the Märkische Allgemeine, “rape causes relatively few convictions before German courts.” The paper cited a 2012 study showing that only 8.4 percent of men accused of rape were convicted.
The percentage of conviction is not in itself proof that the court system is too lax on rapists. (That argument has been used to push for rape findings and expulsions against countless American college men despite evidence that no rape has occurred.) But this case seems rather clear-cut, and the “cultural” defense laughable, if it weren’t so tragic.
Unfortunately, this is far from the first time Germany has faced a rape crisis. On New Year’s Eve 2016, more than 1,200 women were sexually assaulted in various German cities, and authorities linked the sexual assaults to the influx of refugees. German politicians refused to speak out about these heinous crimes, perhaps due to fear of offending Muslims.
The problem with this strategy is that by turning a blind eye to violent rapists in order to avoid offending Muslims, liberals end up alienating the Muslims who do condemn rape, and want to see fewer rapes in their own communities.
Acquitting this Turkish man of rape sends the message that foreigners, or refugees, or Muslims, can claim their culture interprets forced sex as “wild sex.” Not only does this condone rape, but it also might endanger women in Muslim communities, thus hurting the very people liberals are so afraid of offending.
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