‘Teen’ refugee accused of murder is 33, says his father

AN AFGHAN who sought asylum by claiming to be a teenager and stands accused of raping and murdering the daughter of a top EU official is actually 33, his father has revealed.

Hussein Khavari was born in 1984, said his father, who lives in Iran and spoke with trial judges in Germany by telephone.

The age discrepancy could have meant the difference between a life sentence or a juvenile confinement, which could have seen him released after five years, if found guilty.

Khavari sought refuge in Germany in 2015 as an ‘unaccompanied minor’ but is alleged to have attacked Maria Ladenburger in October last year.

He is said to have raped the 19-year-old medical student, who helped migrants in Freiburg and whose father is a senior legal adviser to the European Commission, before drowning her in a river.

It was learned after his arrest he had been sentenced to ten years for attempted murder in Corfu in 2013. Khavari denies rape and murder. He claims Miss Ladenburger fell from her bicycle and he put her body in the river to wash his blood off her. The trial continues.