After the incident was reported last August, the Polish prime minister at the time, Mateusz Morawiecki, claimed the crime was the result of a lax approach to border controls by Germany and the EU.
“A young Pole was raped in Munich by a migrant from Afghanistan. These are the consequences of an open borders policy,” Morawiecki posted on X on August 23 last year.
The accused has been named only as “Wahidullah. H”. His lawyer, Rita Drar said at the start of the hearing at a Munich regional court on Friday that her client would “defend himself silently”, German media outlet Zeit reported.
The scene of the alleged crime, the Max-Weber-Platz subway station, is equipped with numerous cameras that recorded what happened on the platform.
The 18-year-old Polish man, who was visiting Germany, had been returning home from a party at around 1 a.m., Polish state news agency PAP reported, referring to a Munich police statement. Officers said he was “very drunk.”
He fell asleep on the platform, where Wahidullah. H allegedly spotted him and took advantage of the young man’s “inability to resist” and performed sexual acts on him. The perpetrator subsequently ran away with the Polish teenager’s mobile phone, PAP reported.
For over half an hour, Wahidullah. H is said to have groped the victim and raped him several times, German media outlet Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.
The young Pole managed to return home on his own, and the next day reported the incident to the police. Officers managed to locate his stolen phone, which led them to the home of the accused.
The victim’s lawyer, Christos Perperidis, said the Pole is still suffering from the crime, undergoing psychological treatment and unable to forget what happened. He will not have to appear in court in person and his testimony will be recorded on video.
No witnesses
The rape allegedly occurred between 2:35 and 3:05 a.m, after the metro had stopped running. Police have dismissed speculation that metro security guards may have observed the crime but failed to intervene, PAP reported.
The metro guard employed by the Munich Transport Company checks whether people are still in the station before it closes. On the night of the crime, the last train stopped at Max-Weber-Platz at 2:27 a.m., and at around 3:10 a.m. the gates at the station were closed, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reported.
During an inspection, before the gates were closed, two guards said that they did not encounter any more people in the station, FAZ added.
Germany tightens borders
The German government on Monday announced plans to impose tighter controls at all of the country's land borders in what it called an attempt to tackle irregular migration and protect the public from threats such as Islamist extremism.
The restrictions come into effect on September 16 and are part of a series of measures Germany has taken to toughen its stance on irregular migration in recent years following a surge in arrivals, in particular people fleeing war and poverty in the Middle East.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government is seeking to seize back the initiative from the opposition far-right and conservatives, who have seen support rise as they tap into voter worries about stretched public services, integration and public safety.
Berlin has also agreed to tighter deportation rules and resumed flying convicted criminals of Afghan nationality to their home country, despite having suspended deportations after the Taliban took power in 2021 due to human rights concerns.
