Bundeswehr: Soldier convicted of rape in Afghanistan in 2020

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Shoulder patch of the German troops within the Nato Mission Resolute Support (symbol image)

Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa

A Bundeswehr military police officer has been sentenced to a two-year suspended sentence for raping a female comrade while on a foreign mission in Afghanistan.

This was announced by a spokesman for the district court in Kempten on Wednesday.

The verdict against the 36-year-old was therefore issued last Friday.

The crime is said to have taken place two years ago in Camp Marmal near the Afghan provincial capital Mazar-i-Sharif.

The 36-year-old sergeant is said to have forced the woman to have sex after a party.

The prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of the woman.

The defendant had denied the allegations and stated that the sex with the woman was consensual.

The soldier even encouraged him to do so.

Prosecutors demanded six years in prison

Although the soldier was unable to be questioned during the trial, her testimony had previously been videotaped and shown at the hearing.

She was unable to defend herself against the rape out of fear, the woman said in her statement.

According to the court, the public prosecutor's office had demanded a six-year prison sentence, the defense had pleaded for acquittal.

It is still unclear whether the verdict against the soldier will become final.

A spokesman for the public prosecutor's office said on Wednesday that the appeal process is still being examined.

The accused military police and the alleged victim come from North Rhine-Westphalia.

The Kempten judiciary is nevertheless responsible for the case, because the judicial authorities in the Allgäu city are prosecuting crimes "by soldiers of the Bundeswehr on special foreign assignments" nationwide.

fek/dpa