German woman receives harsher sentence than convicted rapist for calling him a pig over WhatsApp
A 20-year-old German woman going by the name Maja R was handed down a harsher sentence than a gang rapist for defamation after calling him a “disgraceful rapist pig.”
According to the New York Post, the man in question was part of a group of nine who gang-raped a 15-year-old girl in Hamburg four years ago. Most of the teenagers involved in the rape case avoided jail time due to German juvenile law due to the fact that the alleged perpetrators were all under the age of 20 at the time. Instead, they were given a suspended sentence, i.e. a custodial sentence where the offender does not have to go to prison provided that they commit no further offences.
Only one of the men was convicted, an unnamed Iranian national who openly accepted responsibility and told the court “What man doesn’t want that?” when questioned about the rape.
It should be noted that Germany has some of the strictest defamation laws in Europe. Under German criminal law, personal honour is enshrined in Article 185 of the penal code. Thus, anyone who unlawfully insults another person’s personal honour through spoken, written, or otherwise communicated statements can be subject to criminal liability. Calling someone an “idiot” can result in a prison sentence of up to two years, for instance.
Maja R was reportedly among at least 140 individuals who sent the perpetrator derogatory messages via WhatsApp after his contact details were leaked on Snapchat.
“Aren’t you ashamed when you look in the mirror?” she wrote, calling him a “disgraceful rapist pig” and a “disgusting freak.”
The 20-year-old 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.”
Maja, a pediatric nursing student, later apologised to the rapist in front of the court stating that her words “didn’t help anyone.”
After openly admitting to the offence, she was found guilty of defamation for her “verbal attacks” and jailed for a weekend for defaming the perpetrator.
The police in Hamburg are currently looking into the remaining individuals for insulting or threatening the gang rapists. 100 of the group members live outside of Hamburg.
The sentence has sparked anger and backlash across Germany over what critics see as the flaws in the country’s judicial system, with disproportionate punishment for defamations and rape.
