A 14-year-old schoolgirl was found dead on Tuesday morning in the Viennese apartment of an Afghan refugee who entered Austria during the migrant wave of 2015.
The girl’s lifeless body was located in the Simmering district of the Austrian capital where it is suspected she was held, drugged, and raped before ultimately dying from a drug overdose.
The tenant, a 26-year-old Afghan national, who claims to have only had “consensual sex” with the girl, has been arrested and remains in police custody.
Few details have been released by the public prosecutor regarding the case, but Kronen Zeitung reported on Wednesday the suspect arrived in Austria back in 2015 when he claimed asylum.
The case has potentially damaging implications for politicians across the party divide with questions for several politicians as to how the man was allowed to remain in Austria.
After his first application was rejected, the Austrian courts granted him subsidiary protection on appeal allowing him to roam freely across the country. This protection was extended twice, first under the FPÖ Interior Minister Herbert Kickl in 2018 and again under ÖVP Interior Minister Karl Nehammer, the current chancellor of Austria.
Following the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan back in 2021, the suspect’s deportation back to his home country became impractical, and he was subsequently granted leave to remain in Austria.
The investigation into the child’s death has now been taken over by the State Criminal Police Office and is ongoing.
The tragic case is the latest in a long line of disturbing headlines coming out of Vienna, including several in recent days.
It has striking similarities to the harrowing case of 13-year-old Austrian schoolgirl Leonie, whose brutal gang rape and murder by three Afghan nationals in 2021 received national condemnation.
[pp id=58777]
The bruised body of the victim was discovered by passers-by leaning against a tree next to Viktor-Kaplan-Strasse in the Austrian capital. Leonie was found strangled with her body dumped in a green strip close to the apartment of one of the attackers in Vienna-Donaustadt.
A Viennese court found back in 2022 that the Afghan migrants had plied the minor with ecstasy with the intention of raping her, and an autopsy report concluded she died of a drug overdose and asphyxiation.
Last Thursday, 17 young people between the ages of 13 and 18, many of whom were of a migrant background, were arrested in Vienna accused of conducting a harrowing long-term ordeal of sexual abuse against a 12-year-old girl.
Authorities seized the suspected male rape gang after the victim filed a complaint claiming to have been forced by her boyfriend to have sex with his friends before being passed around “like a trophy” for over a year.
[pp id=109935]
The gang, including boys from Syria, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Serbia, had reportedly filmed the abuse and threatened to make it go viral on social media if the schoolgirl ever reported them to the authorities.
They were subsequently released after just one day in custody, leading the victim’s family to express their concern for the safety of the girl who feared the gang would come for revenge.
[pp id=109864]
Also last week, Vienna was hit with a bloodbath after an Afghan migrant butchered three prostitutes inside a Thai massage parlor that also served as an illegal brothel. The suspect, who beheaded two of his victims, reportedly told the authorities that he had “read in the Quran that I should engage in jihad,” telling officers that “prostitutes are under the guise of Satan.”
With an increasing number of brutal crimes being committed in Austria by those under the age of 14, a political summit is expected to take place on Thursday, with ministers planning to discuss lowering the age of criminal responsibility.
“We have to talk about punishments. There is also a general imbalance between crimes against life and limb compared to property crimes,” said Chancellor Karl Nehammer
Currently, minors under the age of 14 cannot go to prison and instead receive therapy and social workers, a policy that could change to address the concerning rise in crime by minors.
