The number of sexual assault cases in Germany on New Year’s Eve may be much larger than previously believed, as leaked documents show authorities once again may be covering up what happened.
Germany’s largest newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung released new figures Sunday of the magnitude of the events across Germany. The newspaper claims police estimate 1,200 women were assaulted by as many as 2,000 men across Germany’s major cities.
The number of sexual assault cases in Cologne alone are 642 instead of the around 500 previously reported. An additional 400 cases were reported in Hamburg, which is more than twice the official figure. (RELATED: Cologne Police Make First Arrest 18 Days After 497 Women Were Sexually Assaulted)
The unprecedented events became a massive scandal in the country, in part because authorities tried to protect the foreign perpetrators by not releasing any information.
“There is a connection between the emergence of this phenomenon and the rapid migration in 2015,” Holger Münch, president of the German Federal Crime Police Office, told Suddeutsche Zeitung.
Germany recently moved to change its sexual assault laws to make it easier to deport foreign perpetrators and convict offenders by changing the definition of sexual assault and rape. The old legislation only considered a sexual encounter rape if the women physically resisted. (RELATED: Germany Changes Definition Of ‘Rape,’ Makes Deportations Easier)
The first perpetrators of the Cologne attacks were sentenced to one year’s probation Thursday.
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