Girl with Distress Signal: Stepfather Charged - Trial Still This Year in Vienna

Court spokeswoman Christina Salzborn confirmed the relevant information to the APA on Friday afternoon.

Iraqi in Pre-Trial Detention

As Salzborn announced, there is already a trial date. The hearing has been scheduled for December 16. The native Iraqi, who does not have a permanent residence in Vienna and has previous convictions, is in pre-trial detention at the Josefstadt Correctional Facility due to the risk of committing further offenses and fleeing.

The man is said to have intercepted his wife and the two children - in addition to the six-year-old, an infant - last weekend, threatened them, and forced them to get into his car. Because he allegedly pressed a knife against the woman's neck, the public prosecutor's office assumes severe coercion. The man is said to have driven with the three abducted persons across Vienna against their will for about an hour, which is classified as deprivation of liberty in the indictment.

"He Did Not Kidnap Them"

The 39-year-old will not plead guilty. "He has not committed a crime," said his lawyer Sebastian Lesigang after visiting the man on Friday in the JA Josefstadt. Neither did the accused threaten the woman and the children nor force them to get into his car: "He did not kidnap them." The man "called the police himself" after the following vehicle crashed into the back of his car due to an abrupt stop, Lesigang said in an interview with the APA.

In the past, however, the accused's relationship with the 34-year-old seems to have been marked by violence. The 39-year-old's criminal record shows at least one previous conviction from 2020 that suggests this. The 34-year-old had already obtained a restraining order (RO) against the man some time ago, which included a contact and approach ban. Since the 39-year-old did not comply, the mother of two again sought help from the authorities, in which context the six-year-old child was taught the SOS signal for domestic violence to be able to draw attention to themselves in a possible emergency. The RO was extended in October.

Accident in Vienna 15

On Sunday, there was a minor rear-end collision in front of a shopping center on Neubaugürtel in Rudolfsheim-Fünfhaus. The 39-year-old could not present a driver's license, which is why the other party involved in the accident called the police.

The responding officers first noticed the frightened-looking woman and the children in the back seat of the car. The officers became suspicious when the six-year-old silently placed her thumb in her palm and wrapped her fingers around it - the emergency signal for domestic violence. During the search of the car, the police found three knives, one of them in a stroller.

(APA/Red)

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