Three of the four Afghan migrants suspected of raping and murdering a 13-year-old Austrian girl had their asylum claims declined. But due to appeal proceedings, they were not deported.
Four Afghan asylum seekers are suspected of drugging, raping, and murdering 13-year-old Leonie in Vienna. Police arrested three suspects, aged 16, 18, and 23, last week, while a fourth suspect, aged 22, remains at large and subject of a Europe-wide arrest warrant.
The body of the teen was found on Saturday, June 26th. The three arrests were carried out a short time later, with the third migrant being apprehended on Thursday.
The wanted 22-year-old has been on trial three times before his alleged involvement in the teen’s murder. He had been convicted of drug crimes and reported for drug trafficking, theft, and bodily injury.
According to a report from Kronen Zeitung, the migrant came to Austria in 2015 as an unaccompanied minor and applied for asylum. His claim was rejected in 2017, and he was ordered to leave the country.
The Afghan national, however, appealed the deportation order and, despite committing crimes in the following years, was not removed.
The 18-year-old suspect has had his subsidiary protection revoked but appealed the decision in November 2019, and the case had yet to be resolved. Some have also questioned whether the Afghan is actually 18, with speculation in Autria’s establishment press that he may be as old as 30.
The 23-year-old suspect is said to have also filed for asylum during the height of the migrant crisis in October 2015. He received a negative decision in February 2018, and the Austrian Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum (BFA) issued a deportation order. He also filed an appeal to the deportation order with the Federal Administrative Court in March 2018. Despite receiving a sentence of 24 months for bodily injury and sexual coercion in May 2020, he was also not deported.
The Federal Administrative Court has not disputed large delays in processing failed asylum cases, claiming that in 2019, 80 per cent of the procedures before the court, 40,000 in total, were asylum claims.
Meanwhile, police interrogated the 16-year-old suspect, who admitted that he had brought the 13-year-old victim to a friend’s apartment in the Vienna area of Donaustadt and claimed he and the teen had been given drinks spiked with drugs. He told police that he had passed out and not witnessed the sexual assault.
The 13-year-old was later found dead, her body slumped against a tree near the area of the apartment where she had allegedly been raped and murdered.