A German court has sentenced two adult males from Nigeria and Tunisia to three and four years in prison, respectively, after convicting the pair of having raped an 18-year-old Ukrainian refugee who had been living at the same housing facility as them.
The Düsseldorf district court on Friday sentenced Rachid B., a 26-year-old Tunisian national, and Abdullahi A., a 38-year-old Nigerian national, to a mere three and four years behind bars, respectively, after finding them guilty of raping the Ukrainian teenager back in March, the German broadcaster Westdeutscher Rundfunk reports.
The case sent shockwaves through Germany and all Europe at the time.
The court heard how the two men raped the 18-year-old girl, one after the other, on March 6th on the Oscar Wilde hotel ship which sits on the banks of the Rhine and was being used to house mainly Ukrainian refugees. Apparently, the two men had been staying aboard the hotel ship alongside Ukrainians refugees because they too had been living in Ukraine when the war started.
According to the indictment, the two men are said to have met the victim independently from one another around dinner time. Later that night, the men are said to have attacked her, one after the other, without sharing a common plan. Rachid B. is said to have raped the victim first after she allowed him into her cabin. Shortly after the horrific act took place, the 38-year-old defendant is said to have lured the young woman into his sleeping cabin before raping her as well.
Media reports say the judges based their decision to convict the defendants on DNA traces of the accused found on the victim and on the young woman’s statements to the investigating judge and to an expert.
“Everything speaks for their credibility, there was no evidence of false accusation,” said the presiding judge.
The 18-year-old victim was not required to testify in court because, according to the court experts, she has been severely traumatized from the rapes—and as a result was unfit for questioning. The mother of victim has told individuals involved with the case that her daughter no longer leaves the house.
Both of the convicted defendants maintain their innocence and plan on filing an appeal.
