Austrian police arrested six Afghan migrants in connection with the widely reported spate of sex attacks that occurred in Innsbruck on New Year’s Eve.
In the days after New Year’s Eve in the Tirolean capital of Innsbruck, 18 women came forward claiming to have been the victims of sex attacks. Police confirmed they took six Afghans between the ages of 18 and 22 into custody in connection with the assaults and believe they were responsible for the vast majority of cases reported, Die Presse reports.
Martin Kirchler, a city police officer in Innsbruck, said the migrants lived in different asylum homes in the region and that it was possible there were more suspects at large that the police had yet to identify.
The suspects were located after police had gone to the various asylum homes in the area with security camera footage and photographs of the attackers and a security guard was able to make a positive identification. The first suspect was taken into custody and was able to lead police to five more suspects shortly afterward.
Officer Kirchler said that one of the Afghan migrants readily confessed to the sex assaults, but the other five in custody said they had no memory of the events of the night.
In previous migrant sex assault cases, suspects have tried to claim that they had no memory of incidents because they were intoxicated after consuming large quantities of alcohol. This excuse has led Swedish police in the past to blame “drinking culture” for the…