Afghan migrant who moved to UK after ‘raping and murdering girl, 13, in Vienna’ to be extradited back to Austria
AN AFGHAN migrant who fled to the UK after allegedly murdering and raping a schoolgirl in Vienna will be extradited back to Austria.
Rasuili Zubaidullah is accused of killing Leonie Walner, 13, after she was found wrapped in a roll of carpet that was spotted dumped under a tree in the centre of the city in 2020.
The 22-year-old fled to Dunkirk in France before boarding a people traffickers boat across the Channel to the UK.
He gained access to the country illegally, using a fake name to slip past immigration officials in Dover before being put up by the government in the Ibis hotel in Whitechapel, East London.
But last year British police received a tip off from Austrian authorities and found him hiding out in the hotel.
A court has now ruled that he will be extradited to Austria to face trial for the gang rape and murder of the teenager.
Florian Hoellwarth, the lawyer for Leonie's parents, has now said: "As expected, the extradition request was granted by the court in London."
Hoellwarth added "the extradition decision is not final” before explaining that Zubaidullah has seven days to file an appeal.
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But if the decision reached on Wednesday holds up, then the extradition will take place within 17 days.
Leonie was reportedly raped and brutally attacked by four Afghan men before being left to die in the street on June 26 2020.
Three of the Afghans were later arrested in Austria, but Zubaidullah was arrested following the international manhunt.
The schoolgirl lived in the city of Wiener Neustadt near Austria's capital Vienna, along with her parents and her four siblings aged 15, 17, 19 and 19, when the incident happened.
A police investigation found that the schoolgirl met two of the suspects at the Danube Canal in the city of Vienna where they all took ecstasy on June 25.
They then took the schoolgirl to an apartment in Vienna's 22nd district named Donaustadt, where they were joined by two other suspects.
Police reported that the men gave Leonie more drugs in the apartment to "make her compliant" and sexually assaulted her.
They then rolled her body in a carpet and disposing of it on the street about 100 metres from the apartment.
LETHAL OVERDOSE
A post mortem reportedly found that she had been given a “lethal” overdose of ecstasy and cannabis.
Another Afghan, Shinwari Kuchi, who was in the same Dunkirk migrant camp as Zubaidullah said: “I shared a tent with him when he stayed overnight.
“He talked about his plan to pay £3,000 to Kurdish traffickers to cross the Channel. He was intent on Britain.
“He had just arrived when I met him in the charity food queue. He had nowhere to sleep, so I said 'come into mine [tent]'.
“He didn't talk much but when I woke in the morning he had disappeared. I never spotted him again and he didn't say he was on the run.”
Just ten days later he managed to enter the UK.
The Austrian government has now promised to track down those involved in the girl's 'barbaric' death.
Leonie’s mother, Melanie, told Austrian media: “My little one trusted a 16-year-old and that was her death sentence.”
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She added: “Why were these people still in the country? Why were they not expelled?
“Where are the politicians in charge? We want to know that.”
