OU student held on $5M bond for rape charges
Athens County lawenforcement officers are asking anyone with potential information to come forward, after the indictment of an Ohio University student this week in connection with a Dec. 5 rape at a downtown Athens parking garage and other cases involving sexually aggressive behavior.
Mohammed Nasser Rashid Hamed Al-mashrafi, 23, was arraigned Thursday in Athens County Common Pleas Court on a multicount indictment by the county grand jury.
Al-mashrafi was indicted on charges of kidnapping and rape in connection with the sexual assault of a woman at a Washington Street parking garage, across the street from Athens County Municipal Court, on the morning of Dec. 5, said Athens County Prosecutor Keller J. Blackburn.
It is believed that Al-mashrafi had offered the woman a ride and then drove her to the garage, where she was sexually assaulted, Blackburn said.
In addition to the kidnapping and rape charges, Al-mashrafi was indicted on three felony counts of gross sexual imposition and a felony charge of intimidation of an attorney, victim or witness. He also faces two misdemeanor counts of menacing by stalking and a single charge of public indecency, a release from the prosecutor's office said.
After his arrest, Athens police said they found that Al-mashrafi had been connected with a number of instances of stalking women, at times using their social-media accounts. He's also accused of exposing and fondling himself after he received a professional massage.
Judge George P. Mccarthy set Al-mashrafi's bond at $5 million. Blackburn said he requested a high bond because Al-mashrafi is considered to be a flight risk. Al-mashrafi is attending Ohio University on a student visa from Oman in the Middle East.
The Ohio University campus and Athens area have had an unusually high number of rape and sexual-assault cases this fall. Blackburn said authorities don't know whether Al-mashrafi is connected with other cases so they are asking anyone with information to contact authorities.