German Army Abuse Scandal Spreads

A scandal in Germany surrounding the alleged abuse of army recruits by their officers widened on Friday when the government revealed it had been informed of at least one other case.

A total of 20 non-commissioned officers and a captain are already under investigation by prosecutors in the western city of Münster, accused of mistreating 80 of their charges at a barracks in Coesfeld, at least half of whom were doing national service.

But the army's representative in the Bundestag lower house of parliament, Willfried Penner, has been informed of more accusations of mistreatment, his spokesman Guido Large told a weekly press conference.

"We are looking into this," Large said, but declined to give further details.

New case

Die Welt newspaper reported on Friday that the new case concerned a barracks in North Rhine-Westphalia and that the events resembled those in the case being investigated in Coesfeld.

One of the soldiers in that case told the top-selling Bild newspaper that instructors had tied up recruits, covered their heads and administered electric shocks.

There was a code word that recruits could use to end the exercise, but only one of the young soldiers used it, the soldier told Bild.

One non-commissioned officer in the Coesfeld case has admitted mistreating the recruits with electric shocks and "deeply regrets" his actions, his lawyer said this week.

Argument for military service

The president of the Federation of German Soldiers (DBWV), Bernhard Gertz, said the revelations of mistreatment were a good reason to maintain compulsory military service, which has been the subject of a major debate in Germany recently.

"Someone doing military service is more likely to complain (about mistreatment) than a professional soldier," Gertz told the online newspaper Netzeitung.