Advertisement ::

Enlarge Cartoon

Fribourg, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – A court in Fribourg 17 March sentenced six youths for their part in a gang rape case that is one of a series of crimes in three locations over several months. The crimes include assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, theft and refusing to come to the aid of an injured person,  a handicapped man.

Only one of the youths sentenced in the Schmitten, Fribourg gang rape case of will spend time in prison.

The crimes were committed between summer 2006 and November 2006. They came to light in March 2007.

The six were sentenced in a case that involved 10 men, six of them minors, charged with gang rape and pushing a young woman towards prostitution. The four adults were sentenced in March 2008, and one of the minors, who had meanwhile reached adulthood, was deported.

Of the five sentenced today, the one who was considered most involved will not serve the 10 months in prison that are part of his sentence. He will be sent, instead, to a re-education centre for minors where he could spend up to four years. A second youth who was sentenced to eight months in prison, only two of which must be served, is the only one who will spend time in prison, nights and weekends. During the day he will be allowed to continue a training programme he has begun. The others received short suspended sentences.

The judge, speaking to media after the sentencing, said that all six either said they could not remember or they refused to answer questions, part of their defense strategy.

The case provoked much media attention when it came to light, but interest in the sentencing is high this week in part because of public debate over the murderer of a 16 year old Fribourg woman who was murdered 4 March by a man who had spent time in a re-education centre for an earlier crime.

Related: TSR, Fre