The family of a 13-year-old schoolgirl who was gang-raped and murdered in Vienna wants an Afghan suspect currently in the United Kingdom to be tried separately over extradition delays.
Leonie Wallner was just 13 years old when she was gang-raped and murdered, allegedly by a group of Afghan men in the Austrian capital, Vienna, in June 2021.
And lawyers for her family are now requesting that one of the accused, Rasuili Zubaidullah, 23, who is currently in the UK, to be tried separately to avoid any further delays.
The lawyers for the bereaved family, Florian Hoellwarth and Johannes Oehlboeck, have proposed that the proceedings against the defendants currently in Austria and the defendant in Britain be separated into two separate cases because the wait for the British authorities to extradite him back to Austria has become “an unreasonable burden” for her relatives.
This would allow for proceedings against two defendants currently detained in Austria to begin immediately, with the UK-based defendant to be tried at a later date.
Zubaidullah’s extradition to Austria had originally been green-lit by the British authorities, but he then appealed the decision, causing delays.
He is one of a group of men aged between 16 and 23 facing charges over the violent attack and murder.
Leonie Wallner met the youngest suspect at Vienna’s Donaukanal, a branch of the Danube and popular meeting point for young people, on 25th June last year. She was then offered ecstasy pills by the 16-year-old Afghan migrant.
The men, who all came to Austria as migrants from Afghanistan, are jointly suspected of responsibility for drugging and raping Leonie in a flat in Donaustadt, a remote suburban district of the Austrian capital Vienna, later the same night.
They tried to bring her back to life by making her drink milk and yoghurt before showering her with cold water after she showed no vital signals.
The group eventually wrapped a carpet around the body, leant it against a tree just outside the apartment, and fled. Locals discovered the body the next morning.
The other suspects are in custody in Vienna awaiting charges. They were arrested shortly after the crime, but Zubaidullah fled to the UK. He was arrested at the Ibis hotel in Whitechapel, East London, in July 2021.
