Police have arrested three asylum seekers for the gang-rape of a 14-year-old girl on Halloween night in the German city of Ulm.
The three asylum seekers, from Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran, in custody are aged 15, 16, and 26 and are three of five suspects in the case. Investigators say there could have been even more people involved in the suspected gang rape, newspaper Münchner Merkur reports.
Investigators say the German teen had met one of the suspects on Halloween night and agreed to join him and his group. Once they arrived at the home of one of the asylum seekers, the men raped the girl. Toxicology examinations later found drugs in the girl’s blood, with investigators suggesting the suspects may have drugged her before the assault.
Initially, police arrested all five asylum seekers aged 14 to 26 but released two of the suspects, aged 14 and 24, who remain at large.
Ulm Lord Mayor Gunter Czisch reacted to the case on Twitter and garnered criticism for stating: “I wonder what a 14-year-old girl wants in Ulm at night? Parents have a duty to ensure that a minor girl does not walk around town alone. I say this so clearly because we all have to take responsibility if we want to prevent such cases.”
The mayor later walked back his statements after being accused of “victim-blaming” saying, “I am very sorry that my original statement was misleading. Of course, the girl carries no fault. The blame for this act lies exclusively and clearly with the alleged perpetrators.”
The case comes just over a year after seven Syrian asylum seekers were arrested in the city of Freiburg, accused of gang-raping an 18-year-old young woman after spiking her drink at a nightclub. Initial reports claimed she had been raped by as many as 15 men for up to four hours.
Italy has also seen similar cases including one in which the drugging of a 16-year-old, who was then gang-raped, led to her death by overdose. The suspects in the case were described as being African and Arab immigrants.
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