Six defendants have been sentenced to prison terms of four months to 3.5 years for, among other things, extortion, rape, arson and drug trafficking. It concerns two Afghans, an Iraqi, a Romanian, a stateless person and an Austrian, writes the Austrian newspaper Der Standard. The seventh defendant, with whom the woman had a consensual relationship, was acquitted of theft. The verdict is not yet final: that is only the case once the period for lodging an appeal has expired. The three main defendants risked 7.5 years in prison or half the maximum sentence because they were juvenile delinquents.
After the then 29-year-old woman started a relationship with the then sixteen-year-old boy, she met his friends. The court found it proven that the woman was raped, assaulted and abused several times by individual members of the group while she was under the influence of drugs. Using photos showing the woman having sex and taking drugs, the teens then extorted her into paying for drugs, tobacco, food, drinks and taxi rides. The episode lasted from July 2024 to January 2025, when the teenagers stole items from her apartment and set it on fire while the woman was traveling, according to Der Standard.
The woman admitted that she had made mistakes that “are not always in line with social norms.” The six convicted defendants made partial confessions, but said the sex was consensual. Only the acquitted defendant showed remorse.
