Stephan Kirchinger is more of a friendly guy, he is considered a self-controlled judge. But in the trial of Walid P. * and Farid A. * tore the chairman of the juvenile prison chamber at the district court Munich a few times the patience. When, on a trial day in October, the two Afghan refugees repeatedly dozed off, he warned Walid P: "If you want to sleep, we must interrupt the trial."

The mood during the process was often irritated. Already at the opening in September, Kirchinger said to one of the two asylum seekers, he should "tell no story that can not vote back and forth". One of the defenders, the judge finally accused, he delayed the proceedings.

In fact, in the case of the gang rape of Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, the proceedings dragged on longer than expected, and the taking of evidence was sometimes difficult. On Monday afternoon, the court sentenced both defendants for rape and assault.

The starting point was a party

Walid P. was sentenced to six years in prison. Farid A. is required to take a three-year and nine-year juvenile prison sentence. The 18-year-old also receives another verdict. A third offender had already been convicted in May in a separate case for aiding and abetting rape.

The court considers it proven that both raped the then 16-year-old Marta R. * in Höhenkirchen-Siegertsbrunn, Upper Bavaria, in September 2017. They had celebrated together with other refugees in an asylum seeker accommodation. It was gekifft, the alcohol flowed in streams - from several bottles Jack Daniels is the speech. Between 7.30 and 7.45 pm, the party party finally broke up.

Farid A. accompanied Marta R., ostensibly in the direction of the S-Bahn station, as the investigators have reconstructed it. In a driveway, he then tried for the first time to pass the totally drunken and loud accusation helpless 16-year-olds. Residents, however, noticed the action and shouted loudly. The then 18-year-old student initially abandoned the teenage girl.

On a green strip behind a bush at the train station

But a little later, he and Walid P., the girl persuaded after the court but still on a green strip behind a bush near the train station. Both held the victim for each other.

The young woman's outerwear had been torn away, the jeans were no longer found. Walid P. and Farid A. had also strangled and beaten Marta R. in the act, the judge said.

Another Afghan was sentenced in May by a juvenile court to a one-year suspended prison sentence. He should not only have watched the act and done nothing - on his body, the investigating authorities were found scratch marks. The then 18-year-old should, when the other two raped the woman, have said analogously that he also wants to have sexual intercourse with her.

But that did not happen. A passerby became aware of the crime and spoke to the men, they fled.

The gang rape had made headlines in 2017. Shortly before the general election, a dispute arose in the Free State on whether refugees commit more sexual offenses than locals. Even in the wrong context rape figures of the Bavarian Ministry of Interior had fueled the debate at that time. Shortly thereafter, the AfD was the big election winner in the Free State.

"Particularly difficult case"

One of the two now convicted, 18-year-old Farid A., had previously reached agreement between the court, the defense attorney and the prosecutor on a maximum sentence - in return for a confession. Judge Kirchinger said that they had "fully followed the prosecution in the representation of the act".

The court came from a "particularly serious case" of rape. Walid P. had given different information about his age. However, experts came to the conclusion that he was at least 21 years old - so he was sentenced to adult criminal law. Relieved that he was not convicted.

Judge Kirchinger criticized the statements of a physician who examined the perpetrators in court. The expert first talked about their high alcohol level on a trial day in October. Walid P. was fully culpable at the time of the crime. He saw Farid A. "at the limit of diminished controllability". In this context, however, the orthodontist not only cited his intoxication. One must also "consider that he comes from another culture," he said about Farid A.

"Mr. A. had an increased amount of alcohol that caused disinhibition to override existing insights." The weighting is "a completely different, if you grow up in this culture or in a western." About Afghanistan, he said, "There's a woman who does not matter and the man goes over everything." Socialization has "an influence on the question of controlling oneself."

"Absurd utterances"

The judge was annoyed too. Already in October, he had made it clear that for him only alcohol consumption plays a role in the assessment of the culpability. He was not clear how the lack of socialization influences the ability to control.

Kirchinger's resentment reverberated on the day of the verdict. He said: "The absurdity of his remarks" is the appraiser now aware.

* Marked names are changed.