“Mrs. Merkel Invited Me”

In a coda to the New Year’s Eve rampages in Cologne and elsewhere in Germany that Scott and I wrote about here and here, a leaked police report describing the outrages that occurred in Cologne has been published in the German press. The Telegraph reports:

Ministers have said there is no evidence asylum seekers were involved in the violence. But the leaked police report, published in Bild newspaper and Spiegel, a news magazine, claims that one of those involved told officers: “I am Syrian. You have to treat me kindly. Mrs Merkel invited me.”

Authorities initially lied, claiming there was no evidence that asylum seekers were involved in the sexual assaults and robberies. But that is plainly untrue:

The newspaper quoted a second police officer as confirming the 15 who were held had “residence permits for the asylum procedure”. Officers took down their names, and they are in the police records, he said.

If confirmed, the report will add new weight to claims of a police cover-up. The Cologne authorities have claimed they have no evidence whether asylum-seekers were involved.

More than 150 women have now filed criminal complaints alleging sexual assault and/or robbery. Two have said that they were raped.

In an unrelated incident that also occurred on New Year’s Eve, three Syrians have been arrested for gang raping a teenage girl in southern Germany.

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