LONDON: An Afghan refugee who claimed asylum in the UK has been arrested on suspicion of being involved in the rape and murder of a 13-year-old girl in Austria.
The victim, known only as Leonie, was drugged and gang-raped by a group of men, all believed to be Afghans, before she was suffocated. Her body was discovered rolled up inside a carpet in Vienna on June 26.
Rasuili Zubaidullah, 22, was arrested two weeks after he arrived in Britain on July 18, under a fake name, on a boat carrying refugees.
He applied for asylum and was housed in a London hotel before Austrian police contacted their UK counterparts.
He was detained on July 29 by the UK National Extradition Unit and faces being sent back to Austria, where three other Afghan men have also been arrested in connection with the murder.
Extradition proceedings are likely to begin in January, after Zubaidullah appeared in court via video link from prison on Sept. 3. He is scheduled to appear again in court on Oct. 1.
