The Vienna public prosecutor has filed charges against three suspects in connection with the death of a 13-year-old woman who was found lifeless by passers-by on June 26, 2021 on a green strip in Vienna-Donaustadt. This was announced by the spokeswoman for the public prosecutor’s office, Nina Bussek, on Thursday. They must therefore answer on suspicion of rape resulting in death and serious sexual abuse of minors.
Bussek thus confirmed a report by the online portal of the “Kronen Zeitung” krone.at. According to the criminal defense attorney Wolfgang Haas, who represents one of the three accused, the indictment is not yet final. If the three accused are convicted of rape resulting in death, they face ten to 20 years or life imprisonment under adult criminal law. In fact, however, this should only be considered for the oldest of the three, the age of the other two was below the appropriate limit at the time of the crime. In the indictment, however, the age of the youngest is now given as at least 20, which means that he may have been over 18 at the time of the crime. His age was previously given as 16. The two younger defendants are charged as young adults (between 18 and 21 years old, NB), which means they face a maximum of 20 years in prison if convicted.
In the case, the prosecution had initially investigated four young men of Afghan descent for rape resulting in death. Three suspects, aged between 18 and 23 at the time, were arrested shortly after the body was found – the lifeless girl was leaning against a tree and placed outside – and have been in custody ever since. A fourth suspect initially managed to escape to England. After an international search, the 22-year-old was arrested in a London hotel at the end of July 2021, taken into extradition custody and handed over to the Vienna judiciary at the end of March. In the end, a 23-year-old was no longer considered involved.
On June 25, 2021, the 13-year-old from the Lower Austrian district of Tulln met the suspect, who was originally considered the youngest, on the Danube Canal in Vienna, where she is said to have been administered ecstasy. Then she is said to have been brought by him and the 22-year-old Afghan to the apartment of the third, 18-year-old suspect, where the 23-year-old also went. There, the girl was allegedly given more drugs. In the indictment, seven ecstasy tablets are the language that the men are said to have instilled in the 13-year-old. At least two of the four men are said to have raped her.
When the 13-year-old lost consciousness, the men got nervous. The suspects are said to have given her drinks and held her under a shower. But the girl showed no more signs of life, whereupon, according to the investigation, she was wrapped in a carpet and placed on a grass verge between parked cars. Passersby discovered the body the next morning.
According to the indictment, the three suspects are said to have decided at the time the girl came into the apartment to put her under the strong influence of drugs and to rape her together. An interim report by the forensic medicine already said that the 13-year-old died violently as a result of drug poisoning and suffocation.
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