Dutch court convicts asylum-seeker of raping woman

THE HAGUE, Netherlands – An asylum-seeker in the Netherlands has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for raping a 17-year-old woman after attempting to strangle and drown her.

The rape in September led one local mayor to suggest a curfew for residents of a local asylum-seekers’ centre. Bort Koelewijn, mayor of the northeastern town of Kampen, told a local television station last month that such a restriction should be considered to prevent similar attacks in the future.

The 33-year-old rapist was not identified Thursday, in line with Dutch privacy guidelines. Prosecutors said in a statement last month that he lived in an asylum-seekers’ centre. Dutch media reported that he was originally from Eritrea.

The sentence was handed down by a court in the northeastern town of Zwolle.