Overview

• On August 25 in Düsseldorf, Yanni Gentsch delivered a petition with more than 100,000 signatures after she was secretly filmed while jogging in Cologne in February.
• Justice Minister Benjamin Limbach said North Rhine-Westphalia has submitted the issue to the Strafrechtsausschuss for the next Justice Ministers' Conference and will seek a nationwide solution.
• Current law penalizes covert images only when intimate areas are protected from view or filmed under clothing, leaving recordings focused on clothed body parts in public largely non-prosecutable.
• Limbach backs expanding §184k StGB to criminalize sex‑motivated photos or videos of clothed intimate body parts, noting investigators would examine footage for targeted focus and intent.
• Gentsch’s confrontation video has been viewed more than 14 million times and drew support from public figures, adding pressure ahead of an expected November conference discussion.