International serial rapist Ali Achekzai, who was convicted of six felony counts last month after Orange County authorities had the 34-year-old extradited from Austria, was sentenced today to 61 years to life in state prison. Before the former Ladera Ranch resident learned his fate, one of three women he raped in Laguna Beach, Costa Mesa and San Diego told the court Achekzai's actions changed the
way she interacts with men. She added she'll move on with her life while he spends the rest of his behind bars thinking about what he did.
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Achekzaki, an Afghan national who fled the U.S. for Canada and Europe, stood accused of sexual assault in Austria in 2009 when INTERPOL discovered he was on Orange County's most wanted list for the three Southern California rapes. After Achekzaki was returned to the States, Orange County Deputy District Attorney Robert Mestman prosecuted him for the cases from both counties.
A jury on Dec. 15 found Achekzaki guilty of two felony counts of forcible rape, two felony count
of sexual penetration by foreign object by force, one felony count of
aggravated assault, one felony count of assault with the intent to
commit a sexual offense, and sentencing enhancements and allegations for
committing sexual crimes against more than one victim and causing great
bodily injury to a victim.
As you'd expect, the agencies other than the OCDA that had investigated the sick fuck are all over the map: the Tustin Police Department, the San Diego Police Department, San Diego's district attorney, the FBI, the FBI Legal Attache in Vienna, Orange County
Sheriff's Department, United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE), ICE Homeland Security Investigations, United States Marshals
Service, United States Department of Justice Office of International
Affairs, Toronto Police Services Fugitive Squad, INTERPOL, Salzburg CID,
Austrian Federal Police and Austrian Ministries of Justice and Interior.
For more details on the actual crimes, see our previous coverage:
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.