Afghan accused of strangling teenager does not want to face trial

An Afghan immigrant suffocated a 13 year-old girl after he and his friends had drugged and raped her in Austria, a court heard.

Raculi Zubaidullah, 23, is accused with three other suspects of drugging the teenager with ecstasy pills then suffocating her before dumping her body in a rolled up carpet.

The body of the schoolgirl known as ‘Leonie’ was found on 26 June last year in Weiner Neustadt.

Austrian police arrested the three other men, also immigrants, after they allegedly boasted to a friend about having wild sex with a young girl.

The friend immediately reported the crime to the police.

Zubaidullah fled to the UK but was arrested on 29 July at an Ibis Hotel after an international arrest warrant was issued.

Initial investigations revealed that Leonie met Zubaidullah and one of his accomplices at the Danube Canal, Vienna, on 25 June 2021.

They three took ecstasy and went back to Zubaidullah’s apartment in Donaustadt, in Vienna’s 22nd district, where they were joined by two other men, 18 and 23.

The men allegedly gave the schoolgirl more drugs to ‘make her compliant’ before brutally raping her and rolling her body up in a carpet.

The body was then dumped on the street about 100 metres from Zubaidullah’s apartment.

Jonathan Swain, prosecuting, said: ‘It is alleged that Mr Zubaidullah is suspected of having committed an offence on 25 and 26 June 2021 in Vienna in what is described as deliberate and wilful collaboration with three other named individuals.

‘The two offences are firstly having coerced by force an individual to engage in and acquiesce to by administering to her at least seven ecstasy pills and after that performing vaginal intercourse.

‘He grabbed and choked her until she was no longer able to breathe and was suffocated and therefore ultimately died as a result.’

The second offence arises from the sexual intercourse itself.

A warrant was issued by the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office in Austria on 29 July 2021 and it was certified by the National Crime Agency on 30 July 2021.

Zubaidullah entered the country illegally by boat and gave a different name at the Home Office.

He gave that same name when he was first arrested, but later in the police car confirmed that his name was Zubaidullah.

Ben Keith, defending, said Zubaidullah is only ‘strongly suspected’ of committing the crime and argued that a request by the Austrian authorities to interview him in the UK means they have not yet finished the investigation stage.

He has ‘not yet been charged or tried’ in Austria, said Mr Keith, arguing against extradition.

Mr Swain said the ‘sole reason’ why the investigation has not been progressed is because Zubaidullah’s absence from Austrian territory prevents an interview from taking place.

Zubaidullah, who is remanded to custody, appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to oppose his extradition to Austria.

He was wearing a blue, white and red patterned zip hoodie over grey t-shirt.

At an earlier hearing, when asked if he consented to his extradition to Austria, Zubaidullah waved his arms vigorously, shouting ‘No no!’.

Speaking through a Farsi interpreter, Zubaidullah told the court: ‘All I know is the police arrested me and took me to the prison. I don’t know why.’

Zubaidullah faces extradition to Austria for rape and severe sexual abuse of a person under the age of 14.

District Judge Michael Snow will make a judgement on Wednesday 12 January at 12.30pm.