Germany has dropped its investigation of Rammstein frontman Till Lindemann after several drugging and sexual assault allegations were made against him earlier this year, as reported by Deutsche Welle.
Back in May, a woman named Shelby Lynn made a series of accusations against Rammstein on Reddit and Twitter (now X). She claimed that she had been invited to watch the band's show in Vilnius, Lithuania on May 23 from the front row by their tour manager Aleena Makeeva, and further added that another member of the band's crew invited her and the rest of the individuals in the front row to attend parties before and after the concert.
Shelby asserted she only had two drinks during the pre-party, but felt more intoxicated than usual throughout the rest of the night. She further alleged in her posts that she was invited to privately meet Lindemann in a room underneath the stage during a concert interlude. She agreed to meet with the singer, but claimed that after she told him she didn't want to engage in any sexual acts with him, he became angry.
While she assured several times that she hadn't been sexually assaulted by anyone during the night, she posted photos of bruises that she apparently woke up with the next day and added that she felt unusually sick for the amount of alcohol she remembered consuming. She claimed that she took a drug test in her hotel room, which came up negative for any narcotics.
More allegations reportedly surfaced online against the singer after Shelby's post went viral, and as a result, he was dropped by his book publisher Kiepenheuer & Witsch, and officials in Berlin stated that the singer was under investigation in mid-June "on allegations relating to sexual offenses and the distribution of narcotics" [via Barron's].
Today (Aug. 29), Lindemann's attorneys released a statement regarding the investigation. The statement contends that a YouTuber named Kayla Shyx made videos about Shelby's allegations in early June, and then three other individuals filed criminal charges against Lindemann in Berlin afterward [translated via Google Translate].
"What all of the complainants have in common is that their criminal complaints were not based on their own experiences, but solely on the statements made by Shelby Lynn, Kayla Shyx and the subsequent media reports," it continued.
The statement said that the Berlin public prosecutor's office had opened a preliminary investigation into the accusations made against the frontman, but it has now been dropped "due to insufficient suspicion of a crime." They noted that the public prosecutor's office in Vilnius had already discontinued their own investigation into the matter as well.
During the criminal proceedings, Lindemann was represented by Prof. Dr. Björn Gercke and Pantea Farahzadi from Cologne, Germany. "The swift discontinuation of the preliminary proceedings conducted against my client proves that the investigations of the public prosecutor's office did not uncover any evidence or circumstantial evidence to charge my client with the commission of sexual offenses. There was simply nothing to the allegations," Gercke said in the statement.
Rammstein have since shared a link to Berlin.de article confirming the conclusion of the investigation in a post on their social media with the caption, "Preliminary proceedings against Rammstein singer set."
The article stated that the bruises Shelby had posted photos of were insufficient to make conclusions about what had caused them, and that she didn't provide evidence that she took a drug test [translated via Google Translate]. It stated that YouTuber Kayla Shyx "remained too vague in the interrogations — especially since the witness was unable to describe her own experience of criminally relevant incidents.
READ MORE: Rammstein Drummer Issues Statement on Till Lindemann Allegations
"Other persons named by the witness are said to have either not observed anything relevant under criminal law or were not named in a sufficiently identifiable manner and could not be named through the further police investigations either. A direct interrogation was therefore not possible."
Furthermore, the article said that accusations had also been made against Makeeva for allegedly inviting women backstage at Rammstein concerts, but the proceedings against her were dropped as "there were also no indications of criminally relevant behavior."
Lindemann has since shared a sentence on his Instagram story that reads, "I would like to thank everyone who waited impartially for the investigation to end."
Instagram - @till_lindemann_official
Instagram - @till_lindemann_official