"He's a free man, you can take his shackles off." Kosay A. shines all over his face as a judicial officer releases him from the shackles shortly after 10:00 am, at the behest of the presiding judge.
At the request of his defense attorney, the Great Youth Chamber of the Freiburg Regional Court overturned the warrant for arresting Kosay A. on Wednesday morning. The 25-year-old Syrian is no longer strongly suspected of having raped an 18-year-old in the bushes in front of a Freiburg disco in October 2018. Two other defendants will soon be released from custody. Even with them, the prosecutor no longer sees an urgent suspicion. The defense has requested their release on Wednesday. The court has signaled consent.
Urgent suspicion of failure to help
Kosay A. is back in freedom, but he is not acquitted. In the case of a presumptive gang rape, he must continue to be in the dock with ten other young men. "With all my joy, Mr. A., you are listening carefully," says Judge Stefan Bürgelin. He urged the defendant to continue to appear punctually on each day of the trial.
The co-defendant Timo P. had charged Kosay A. in his interrogation with the police. The only German defendant had stated there that "the Kosay and I and many others" would have had sex with the woman. In the trial, Timo P. had relativized his statement. He did not know where he got this information from. He had picked it up somewhere. Other evidence or evidence against Kosay A. is missing. In the police and before the magistrate he had always claimed not to have touched the woman. The court has now dropped the charge of rape against him.
The judges, however, still see an urgent suspicion of failure to provide assistance, as Kosay A. was at the scene and should not have helped the woman. This is a maximum of one year imprisonment. Keeping Kosay A. in detention is therefore disproportionate. For exactly eleven months, the 25-year-old Syrian was in custody.
"I put my hand into the fire for him"
A friend had already protested his innocence in the preliminary investigation. "I put my hand into the fire for him," said the 19-year-old on Wednesday as a witness in court: "He does not do something like this." Kosay is a quiet, restrained guy who keeps out of any conflict. He asked her for help a few days after that October night. Many of his friends had been arrested, now he was afraid to go to jail himself.
"He was really desperate and was really scared because he did not do anything," the witness said. The two met. Kosay is said to have given her the names of four defendants who had sex with the woman. He did not know the correct German word for what the men had done with her. He typed the Arabic term into his cell phone, had him translate Google, and showed the witness the German word: rape.
The witness had been interrogated several times by the police. First, she stated that Kosay had also named Muhanad M. as a suspected rapist. Later she corrects herself. Not Kosay called the name, but a tabloid. That had confused her.
more on the subject
It suggests that soon Muhanad M. and another defendant, Ayham A., will have reason to rejoice. Their lawyers also requested Wednesday to release their clients from custody. The taking of evidence did not result in an urgent suspicion. The prosecution also sees it the same way and has no objections to her release. The court will now decide on the motions in a timely manner.
Muhanad M. had always stated that she had only helped the woman. He got her out of the bushes and helped her get dressed. The 18-year-old also saw her savior in Muhanad M. She claimed to have felt protected by him. That night, she had gone to his house with a friend and spent the night with him.
Judge Bürgelin talks Muhanad M. and Ayham A. already on this day in the conscience. He also tells them, as a precautionary measure, that they must continue to appear for the trial. This can be taken as an indication that the court will probably also release these two defendants. Then eight men of the eleven defendants were suspected of having raped the young woman.
The defense had earlier criticized that the prosecutor's office, despite thin evidence, brought charges. According to their impression, the authorities were only able to leave some trace near the shrubbery in order to arrest and indict their clients. That could take revenge now.