A Tunisian migrant has been arrested in Germany for the alleged rape of a 15-year-old schoolgirl in the city of Halle, the largest in the state of Saxony-Anhalt.
The attack took place on Wednesday but was initially unreported at the request of German authorities until the newspaper Mitteldeutsche Zeitung ran the story on Saturday, sparking claims in the German media of a police cover-up.
“The police and prosecutors had decided to keep the serious crime from the public,” reported German news site Junge Freiheit, with German newspaper Bild citing a spokeswoman for the authorities who explained that this decision was “in consultation with the public prosecutor’s office.”
It is understood from the basic reporting of the incident that the victim was lured to an apartment on Streiberstraße in the south of the city where she was brutally raped by her attacker.
The suspect, according to Bild, is a 29-year-old Tunisian who remains in police custody. This was confirmed to Mitteldeutsche Zeitung by senior public prosecutor Heike Geyer on Friday.
According to the same newspaper, the victim ended up in the hospital due to the injuries she sustained during the attack, and she is reportedly still in the hospital receiving treatment.
An investigation into the incident remains ongoing.
