15-Year-Old Dies in Hospital Week After Syrians Dump Her in Stairwell

This picture taken in Vienna on September 6, 2012 shows a sign of the Polizei, Austria&#03
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A 15-year-old girl has died in hospital a week after she was found in a stairwell. Police are questioning two Syrians in connection with her death.

The girl was discovered by passersby in a lifeless state in a stairwell on September 27. Medical staff were initially able to resuscitate the 15 year old, and took her to hospital, but she died yesterday of what toxicology reports indicate was a cocaine overdose.

Shortly after the girl was discovered in Innsbruck, police brought a Syrian man in for questioning in relation to the case. The 22 year old told officials that he and a friend had watched through a window and seen two Moroccan men moving the girl to the stairwell.

In subsequent interrogations, police found the Syrian’s story to be full of contradictions and a second Syrian national was questioned. Eventually, they had to admit the girl had consumed drugs and alcohol in their apartment.

The two men had moved the girl outside when she lost consciousness as they were afraid they would get in trouble with the police, the Tiroler Tageszeitung reported.

The two men, both of whom have been granted asylum, are blaming one another for the girl’s death. “They accuse each other. One Syrian says that the other gave the girl the cocaine and vice versa”, an investigator working on the case told Kronen Zeitung.

According to the spokesman for the Innsbruck prosecutor, Hansjörg Mayr, the men are suspected of giving narcotic drugs to a minor and of failure to assist a wounded person. The Syrians are not being held in custody.

A report on migrant crime released in March revealed that for every 100 people who attempt to claim asylum in Austria an average of 55 criminal offences are committed. The Austrian agency of Federal statistics report showed that during the period of 2004 to 2014 almost every other migrant had committed some kind of criminal offence after coming to the country and seeking asylum.

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