An Iraqi migrant raped and murdered a teenage girl on a sinking boat in the Mediterranean Sea.
According to a report by the British newspaper Daily Mail, survivors claimed that this man committed an unspeakable act after witnessing his wife and daughter drowning. Italian media reported that he took out his anger on a 16-year-old girl.
AGI News Agency reported, citing police investigations, that during the sinking of the boat, the 27-year-old man raped the girl and strangled her in front of her distressed mother.
The man was arrested on suspicion of murdering the Iraqi-origin girl who was traveling to Europe with her mother. The girl’s mother survived the disaster and reported her daughter’s death to the police.
Only a dozen people were rescued from the boat. Authorities believe that approximately 70 people were on board, including more than two dozen children. One of the survivors later died. More than half of the bodies were recovered.
Officials confirmed in a statement that the sailing boat had departed from the Italian coast when the Iraqi-origin man launched a violent attack on a 16-year-old Iraqi girl. A police spokesperson did not immediately confirm the details of the attack.
Survivors described their perilous journey to charity workers, stating that they were traveling without life jackets and that some boats did not stop to help them.
Police reported that the survivor was arrested and detained in the prison of the capital of the Calabria region, Catanzaro, on charges of murder and rape. Meanwhile, in Iraqi Kurdistan, security forces announced on Tuesday the arrest of four suspects involved in human trafficking in connection with the shipwreck.
