It was a large contingent of police who searched for two perpetrators around Linz’s main train station yesterday. Together with three suspects, who were arrested immediately, they are said to have been involved in a rape on Waldeggstrasse in Linz.
Rumors that the crime was connected to the initial reception center for refugees in the former postal distribution center quickly turned out to be false. The suspects have a migration background, but have no connection to the initial reception center – just as little as the young victim.
The suspects are said to have abused the young woman in the open air. According to police statements, the three suspects who were immediately arrested were entered “in the act”.
The manhunt for the other two suspects was still ongoing at press time yesterday.
The incident brings back bad memories of the rape of a 19-year-old high school student on Dinghoferstrasse in Linz in June 2017. The young woman was on her way home from a high school graduation party in the early hours of the morning when two men asked her for cigarettes. As she reached into her bag, the men pushed the student aside and shoved a metal object into her back.
The victim suspected it was a weapon. The duo forced the 19-year-old to go into the basement of an apartment building. There the woman was raped.
The perpetrators – a 28-year-old Austrian with Turkish roots and an 18-year-old Afghan – were found guilty two years later and sentenced to seven and a half years and two years and ten months in prison respectively.
Source: Nachrichten
