New Year's Eve sexual assaults in Germany

Eight Iraqi asylum seekers have been sentenced by an Austrian court to between nine and 13 years in jail for the brutal gang-rape of a 28-year-old German woman during New Year's celebrations over a year ago.

Three German states hold elections for regional parliaments on Sunday which are expected to show strong performance of The Alternative for Germany (AFD), a right-wing group opposed to Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy on refugees.

German authorities have released the photos of five suspects reportedly involved in the massive New Year’s Eve sexual assaults against women in Cologne Square. The German police publicised the photos of the five male suspects after extensive examination of visual and other data it managed to gather.

The Afghan asylum seekers, aged 14 and 34, have been arrested for sexually assaulting two young girls at a public swimming pool in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany.

Some 40 percent of Germans think Chancellor Angela Merkel should resign over her refugee policy, the Focus magazine has reported.

The article quoted an Insa poll, that also showed 45.2 percent of respondents think Merkel's refugee policy is not a reason for her to step down.

An official report confirmed that migrants were involved in the assaults targeting women, which occurred on New Year's Eve in the German city of Cologne.

According to the report, which was presented by the interior minister of the state of Rhine-Westphalia on Monday, the majority of the suspects were of migrant origin, being mainly North African and Arab.

A group of Pakistanis and a Syrian were violently attacked by about 20 unknown assailants late on Jan. 10 in the German city of Cologne, police said.

Germany's Justice Minister Heiko Maas said on Jan. 10 that the shocking spate of sexual assaults during New Year festivities in Cologne was organised.

Cologne police have said that the number of women claiming that they were assaulted on New Year’s Eve has risen to 379 with half of the cases reported involving crimes of a sexual nature.

Police said on Saturday that the number of cases reported to them had reached 379 and about 40 % of which involved allegations of sexual offences.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has proposed that asylum seekers on probation or who committed any kind of crime should be sent back to their countries of origin.

This comes after multiple sex attacks on women in the city of Cologne and elsewhere that took place on New Year's Eve and that were reportedly committed by men of North African and Arab appearance.