Four Syrians and one Iraqi have been arrested and charged for the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in the small German village of Heinsberg-Unterbruch, according to the Aachen public prosecutor’s office. However, during the course of the investigation, more women have come forward, and there are reportedly three rapes being investigated, along with a plethora of other crimes.
The five men, who are between 17 and 27 years of age, are currently being held in pre-trial detention and have been under investigation since the end of October.
They are accused of raping a 17-year-old girl over a long period of time in the village on Oct 19, 2025. She immediately went to the police and filed a complaint after the gang rape.
Since then, the investigation has only grown in complexity as more victms have come forward.
“The subject of the proceedings are three cases of rape,” Chief Public Prosecutor Katja Schlenkermann-Pitts told WDR.
It is notable that the village, which has a population of a little over 2,000, is historically known as a quiet residential area, with no high-profile crimes that could be found dating at least back to the 1980s. Furthermore, given that this incident happened in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, it is worth noting that approximately 75 percent of all gang rapes are committed either by foreigners or those with a foreign background in the state.
🇩🇪🚨 Last year, police in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia arrested 155 suspects in connection with 209 cases of gang r*pe.
A total of 84 suspects were foreign nationals and 71 were German citizens.
At the request of the AfD state parliamentary party, the state… pic.twitter.com/Nc3DwTje1o
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) September 3, 2024So far, police investigators are limiting how many details they are willing to share regarding the case in Heinsberg-Unterbruch.
Two out of three victims are minors, which means there are also potential data protection elements at stake regarding the minors.
The news of the rapes comes on top of news that the men are also wanted for other crimes, although the WDR report does not name what specific offenses these may include. However, there was an SEK police operation against their homes, where one individual was found to have a pistol and Taser at his property.
Numerous high-profile gang rapes involving Syrians and other Middle Eastern men have plagued Germany over the years, including numerous cases in North Rhine-Westphalia. In one case, 7 suspects were arrested for gang raping an 18-year-old in Herford.
Notably, AfD politician Marie-Thérèse Kaiser was later convicted for publishing gang rape statistics in response to news that Afghan migrants would be moved to her district.
The 27-year-old politician was found guilty in the Verden regional court in Lower Saxony on Monday for “inciting hatred” against local Afghan workers. She pointed to gang rape statistics that showed foreigners were responsible for half of all the rapes in Germany.
The AfD politician was defiant during the appeal process, writing on X before the most recent verdict: “My appeal hearing for alleged incitement will take place at the beginning of May. Simply naming numbers, dates and facts is to be declared a criminal offense, just because the establishment does not want to face reality. I will not allow myself to be silenced,” she wrote.
