Kurschus: Did not know about accusations against ex-churchman
EKD Council Chairwoman Annette Kurschus has denied that she was informed many years ago of an allegation of sexual assault by a former church employee. "She emphatically rejects the "insinuations and speculation" made against her in the Siegener Zeitung newspaper, said the Chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany on Tuesday evening at the Synod in Ulm. An anonymous complaint against the person now accused was received at the beginning of 2023. "Before that, I had no knowledge of acts of sexualized violence by this person," Kurschus emphasized.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Westphalian regional church office referred to the statements made by the EKD Council Chairwoman in Ulm, which can be seen in a video recording. "Ms. Kurschus has nothing to add to this," said the spokesperson at the request of the German Press Agency.
The Siegener Zeitung refers to the testimony of a man who claims to have informed church officials in Siegen about a sexual assault by the church employee, including Annette Kurschus, back in the late 1990s. The current EKD Council Chairwoman Kurschus, who is also President of the Westphalian regional church, was previously also active in Siegen. The church districts of Siegen and Wittgenstein were merged at the beginning of 2023.
The Siegen public prosecutor's office is investigating several suspected cases of sexual abuse of wards in the 1990s, a spokesperson told dpa. Witnesses are still being questioned in the suspected case against the man, who is now retired. There is no final assessment, the spokesperson emphasized. If there are any indications of criminally relevant conduct, the statute of limitations could apply. It is being investigated whether the former employee took advantage of his "somewhat prominent position" to sexually approach young men in his environment.
According to the current state of the investigation, none of those involved were minors at the time of the alleged offense, the spokesperson said. It was not possible to say exactly how many people made incriminating statements. According to the Siegener Zeitung newspaper, the man - along with three other men - had reported "explicitly and in detail" to Kurschus about the "sexual misconduct of the church employee".
Kurschus said at the synod meeting that the allegations would also be investigated independently by the church. The fight against sexual violence "in the Westphalian church and beyond" has been an important concern of hers for years.
Despite being actively involved in Siegen at the time, Annette Kurschus, the EKD Council Chairwoman, stated that she was unaware of any criminal acts committed by the accused church employee, including instances of sexual assault. The Westphalian regional church is currently under investigation by the Siegen public prosecutor's office for several suspected cases of sexual abuse, but the allegations against Kurschus specifically are still under investigation.
Source: www.dpa.com
