For allegedly assaulting a 26-year-old Viennese woman on April 1, 2022, a young Iraqi man was sentenced to six years imprisonment for sexual assault and robbery at the Regional Court on Friday. The 24-year-old already had a number of previous convictions at the time of the offence. Between March 2018 and June 2021, he had been convicted a total of three times for coercion, assault, theft and narcotic offences. He was not deported.
The 26-year-old was on an evening walk when she was approached by the accused near a student dormitory on a towpath along the Danube Canal. She made him understand that she was not interested in a conversation. He then grabbed her, pulled her towards him, according to the indictment, pushed her against a wall and said in German: “Either money or sex”, pulling a condom out of his pocket. She fought him off, whereupon he pushed her to the ground, lay on top of her and tried to abuse her.
In this situation, the woman managed to distract the 24-year-old by trying to give him money. He let go of her for a moment, which she used to shout for help and attract the attention of passers-by. Then the Iraqi forcibly snatched the mobile phone from her hand and ran away. However, he had left DNA traces on the woman’s body, and due to his already troubled past he could be quickly traced using the DNA database and arrested.
“He is very sorry. He was in great need of money. It is clear to him that this was not in order,” the man’s legal assistant stated before a panel of lay judges (chaired by Stefan Huber). The man then surprised the court by saying afterwards: “I tried to kidnap her. But I did not rape her.” The woman’s resistance had surprised him. He then tried to kiss her at least on the neck: “But she resisted.” In the course of this, she fell to the ground. In retrospect, he does not know what was going on inside him at the time: “I was unconscious.”
The 24-year-old did not agree with the verdict. He filed an appeal against it. The decision is therefore not legally binding.
https://www.puls24.at/news/chronik/sechs-jahre-haft-fuer-ueberfall-auf-26-jaehrige-wienerin/268480
