A woman in Germany has been given a harsher sentence than a convicted rapist after she was found guilty of defaming him.
Maja R, a 20-year-old from Hamburg, called him a “disgraceful rapist pig” and a “disgusting freak”, defamatory under German law.
He was one of nine attackers who gang-raped a 15-year-old girl in a Hamburg park in 2020, in a case that shocked the city.
Maja R was sentenced to a weekend in jail for her verbal attacks. The rapist was given a suspended sentence and served no prison time due to his age.
The sentence has sparked anger over what critics see as the flaws in Germany’s judicial system, with disproportionate punishment for defamation.
Maja R expressed her disgust in a direct message to one of the gang-rapists via WhatsApp, after his name and number were leaked on Snapchat. She told the court she sent her message to him “without thinking twice”.
“Aren’t you ashamed when you look in the mirror?” she asked, calling him a “disgraceful rapist pig” and a “disgusting freak”.
She also told the criminal that he “couldn’t go anywhere without getting kicked in the face” and said, “let’s hope you are just locked away”.
Nine men and boys
The man was one of nine men and boys convicted of raping a heavily drunk 15-year-old in the bushes of a Hamburg park over a number of hours in Sept 2020.
Only one of them spent any time in jail, an Iranian national, who was 19 years old at the time. Speaking about the rape in court, he asked: “What man doesn’t want that?” It’s not clear why he received jail time and the others didn’t.
The rest of the attackers, including the one defamed by Maja R, were given suspended sentences, due to being under 18 at the time. Anne Meier-Goering, the presiding judge, lamented during the trial that “none of the defendants said a word of regret”.
Maja R was sentenced to a weekend in jail because she had a previous conviction for theft and not attending the court hearing for the case.
She apologised to the young man she had contacted, telling the court “it didn’t help anyone”. She added that she wanted to go back to school and study to become a paediatric nurse.
Mild slurs
The case has laid bare Germany’s harsh defamation laws, which criminalise causing offence with even mild slurs like “idiot”. Breaking the law can lead to punishment of up to two years in prison.
The district court said it had received strong reactions over the rulings in both the defamation case and the rape trial which prompted it.
Hamburg authorities are now investigating around 140 more suspects for insulting or threatening the gang rapists, with 100 of the suspects based outside Hamburg.
A court spokesman told the Hamburger Abendblatt local newspaper last week: “We are observing the hostility in connection with the proceedings and the verdict with great concern.”
He said the anger over the case had “reached a new, worrying level of intensity” and described the criticism as “a targeted attack on the rule of law”.
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