Austria: Afghan raped 15-year-old Ukrainian refugee girl – and remains at large for now!

A Ukrainian refugee girl in the Upper Austrian town of Weyer, district of Steyr-Land, was apparently raped by an asylum seeker. As first reported by the newspaper “Krone”, the alleged perpetrator, a 19-year-old Afghan, allegedly dragged the slightly intoxicated 15-year-old girl to a railway embankment that was difficult to see and forced her to have sexual intercourse there. Shockingly, the investigation into the crime, which took place late on Wednesday evening, is “in full swing”, according to the police – but the urgent suspect is to remain at large at least until the first results of the investigation are available on Monday.

The young Ukrainian woman, who suffered injuries to her neck and limbs, confided to her brother the next day, whereupon the family filed a complaint. The preliminary arrest of the suspect by the Weyer police was initially cancelled by the responsible public prosecutor’s office due to a lack of current investigation results. Julia Rauscher, spokesperson for the Steyr public prosecutor’s office, said that they had only been informed verbally about the accusations, and that written results of the investigation were still pending. A medical examination of the girl, the diagnosis of which is expected at the beginning of next week, should provide further information about the course of events. The complainant had only recently fled to Austria with her mother and two siblings to escape the war in Ukraine.

On Thursday, there was speculation about the transfer of the suspected Afghan asylum seeker to another temporary accommodation. According to the “Krone”, the authorised executive bodies had contacted the province of Upper Austria immediately after the incident and the initiation of the police investigation with the request to relocate him. On Saturday morning, Rauscher confirmed that a prohibition of approach and entry was in the offing, but that it was up to the competent police authority to decide.

On Saturday, the public prosecutor’s office was unable to provide any information on the relationship between the young Afghan and the teenage Ukrainian girl. They insist on the opinion they made last week, that the suspect remains at large until the results of the search and investigation, which are expected on Monday, are available. Meanwhile, the police investigation is in full swing.

After a similar incident in Linz at the end of March, the public prosecutor’s office there had also decided in favour of the accused, three 15-year-old Afghans and a 14-year-old Iranian, in case of doubt and in the absence of solid evidence. The four boys had been accused of raping a 16-year-old schoolgirl near Linz Central Station (eXXpress reported). However, the pre-trial detention was lifted after the evaluation of the evidence, which according to the executive was “not very conclusive”.

https://exxpress.at/afghane-vergewaltigte-ukrainisches-maedchen-15-und-bleibt-auf-freiem-fuss/