Germany holds 31 suspects over Cologne New Year attacks

Of 31 suspects temporarily detained for questioning following the New Year’s Eve attacks, there were 18 asylum seekers but also two Germans and an American among others, and none were accused of specifically committing sexual assaults and the investigation is ongoing.

The suspects include nine Algerian nationals, eight people from Morocco, five from Iran and four from Syria, German interior ministry spokesman Tobias Plate said. Police have not yet identified suspects for the sexual assaults. “They couldn’t take care of us and we as women suffered the price”. Bild, the German daily, published a leaked police report on the incidents that said officers were overwhelmed by the events.

“We have to conclude from them new tasks and new challenges”, she said.

Albers rejected suggestions that police had deliberately withheld information.

He said the police handling of New Year’s trouble in Cologne must be investigated and “the public debate surrounding me is liable to complicate and delay this work”.

Several victims have come forward to relate the unfortunate events to which they were subjected on that night of celebration that ended in criminality all across the city. After police moved in to stop them, smaller groups of men began surrounding women in the area.

There is evidence the asylum seekers committed offences such as theft and bodily injury of a non-sexual nature, but none are believed to have engaged in sexual assault, a ministry spokesperson said. He said police are trying to identify other suspects.

Albers had faced pressure over allegations in the German media that police attempted to play down the involvement of asylum seekers because of the political sensitivity of the issue. Some people in Germany have criticized Merkel’s open-door policy toward asylum seekers.

The apparent policy U-turn comes following reports of mass sexual assault and a number of rapes allegedly undertaken by men from among a group of more than a thousand in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.

“We must examine again and again whether we have already done what is necessary in terms of deportations from Germany in order to send clear signals to those who are not prepared to abide by our legal order”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel condemned the attacks on Thursday, calling them “abominable, criminal acts… which Germany will not tolerate”, and said they raised “serious questions” about the “fundamentals of cultural co-existence in Germany”.