German woman gets harsher sentence than rapist for defamation

A German woman has been given a harsher sentence than a convicted rapist after calling him a “shameful rapist pig”.

Maja R, 20, was jailed for a weekend after being found guilty of defamation against the man, who was one of nine attackers who gang-raped a 15-year-old girl in a Hamburg park four years earlier, according to reports.

The man received only a suspended sentence and served no prison time due to his age, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Maja R. apparently did not know the rapist, but she was one of at least 140 people who sent him derogatory messages via WhatsApp after her name and number were leaked on Snapchat.

“Aren’t you ashamed when you look in the mirror?” she wrote, calling him a “shameful rapist pig” and a “disgusting monster.”

She also told the criminal he “couldn't go anywhere without getting kicked in the face” and added: “Hopefully you just get locked up.” »

Maja R. told the court she sent the message “without thinking twice” — a courageous act for a country with notoriously strict defamation laws.

The pediatric nursing student, however, apologized to the rapist, telling the court that “it didn't help anyone.”

The man – who was not named by the New Zealand Herald – was one of nine teenagers convicted of abusing the 15-year-old girl for several hours in September 2020.

Almost all escaped prison thanks to Germany's juvenile law, except for one Iranian national who brazenly accepted responsibility for the rape, telling the court: “What man doesn't want that?” »

Maja R.'s sentence was harsher than that of the rapist she had defamed because she had already been convicted of theft and had not attended the court hearing for that case.

A court spokesperson told local media that Maja R.'s hostility was emblematic of the country's continuing anger over the rape case, even four years later.

The case has “reached a worrying new level of intensity,” he said, calling the criticism a “targeted attack on the rule of law.”

Germany is known for having strict defamation laws that criminalize even the mildest insults.

In Germany, calling someone an “idiot” can result in a prison sentence of up to two years.