Vigilante group did not beat up asylum seeker: Dutch authorities

Neighborhood watch militia Soldiers of Odin was not responsible for assaulting an asylum seeker found injured in Winschoten last weekend, the police, Public Prosecutor and the municipality of Oldambt said in a joint statement, the Volkskrant reports.

According to the statement, the asylum seeker sustained his injuries in a fight in a bar the night before.

Early this week the Soldiers of Odin announced that they turned a criminal asylum seeker over to the police. The police found the wounded asylum seeker where someone reported he would be, but no one else at the scene.

According to the group, the asylum seeker sexually harassed a number of women, including a 12-year-old girl who he asked to go to Groningen with him. When the girl tried to cycle away, the asylum seeker grabbed her bike, but she managed to get away, the group says.

The police talk about inappropriate behavior, but the man did not commit any criminal offenses and will not be prosecuted. He is however a suspect in another assault case.