Guilty Verdict

Around 14 months ago....in Vienna...a rape occurred.

What the cops said was that a German woman was visiting Vienna for New Year's Eve....maybe had a few drinks too many....and ended up being picked up by a couple of Iraqi refugee guys.

Using various methods....I'm assuming video cameras from the area, they tracked down a couple of the guys, and eventually pieced together the case of eight Iraqi men.

The curious thing is that they had women in the apartment (wives, from the description given) and they were told to leave for a while while the eight had relations with the German woman.

Late yesterday, the case wrapped up and guilty verdicts were handed out to seven of the eight men.  Sentences will range from nine to thirteen years....to be given out later at some point.  One single guy was acquitted on the charges.

The guys?  They range from twenty-two to forty-eight years old.  All of them either had full-up asylum granted, or they'd applied for asylum.

I read through the various pieces from D-W, and from Vienna newspapers.  One single guy from the group had some feeling of guilt and said some apologies for his behavior.  The rest either denied they were there or just claimed that the German had given permission.

Most folks think appeals are guaranteed, but the cops did everything by the book and DNA evidence is at the heart of the whole case.  The most I can see is that some of the sentence time might be lessened.

The thing about this is that the eight gentlemen in question gave just about every migrant guy in Austria a bad reputation, for a few minutes of stupidity and extremely stupid behavior.   What happens at the end of the prison time?  My guess is that they will all be given some one-way ticket back home to Iraq.  The Iraqi government might refuse them....leaving Austria with no real method of 'dumping' them.

You just shake your head over this episode.  The German woman will suffer for the rest of her life.  The seven sentenced to prison will find little relief when they finally are released from prison.