Eight Iraqi asylum seekers living in Austria have been found guilty of the gang rape of a 28-year-old woman in Vienna and jailed for between nine and 13 years each.
As Heat Street has previously reported, the men – who are all related and aged between 22 and 45 – were on trial for the gruesome attack on the teacher, a tourist from Germany, which took place in the early hours of New Year’s Day 2016.
Austrian prosecutors had originally charged nine men with “abuse of a defenceless person and rape in a very humiliating and agonising way for the victim.” However, this morning charges against one of the men were dismissed.
The attackers cannot be deported because Iraq is considered too unsafe. They have all launched appeals against their sentences.
During the trial, which took place over several weeks, the court was told that the victim – identified as Sabine K. – was with a female friend enjoying the turn of the year celebrations. The pair were drinking in a bar but, probably through intoxication, became separated. At this point four of the men picked up the victim and took her to an apartment in the city where the rest of the group was waiting. The victim woke up during the attack naked on a bed. The ordeal lasted for about two hours.
Although most of the group denied the charges, the DNA of six of them was found on her body. Medical experts testified she was raped multiple times and sodomized.
The defendants all arrived in Austria between May and December 2015 via the Balkan route. At the time of the attack, five of the original suspects had secured the right to remain in Austria while four others were still waiting to hear whether their applications had been accepted.
The victim, who was unable to attend court, is receiving psychiatric care. She was awarded €25,000 in damages by the court.
Featured image via Flickr/Dennis Jarvis
