Man gets 61 years for sexual assaults

A one-time Ladera Ranch man who became an international fugitive and was finally captured in Austria was sentenced Friday to 61 years in prison for sexually assaulting three women in Orange and San Diego counties.

Ali Achekzai, 33, was convicted in December of raping two women in 2004 and attempting to sexually assault another woman in 2002, according to Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Mestman.

Achekzai was apprehended in Austria three years ago after using various aliases and fleeing the U.S. through Canada. He was arrested under the name Wali Ahmed Shoja.

The case against him for rape was later dismissed, but a DNA sample taken at the time connected him to the California attacks.

Achekzai fondled and attempted to sexually assault a 24-year-old woman while she was passed out in a limousine after meeting at a Laguna Beach nightclub on Oct. 26, 2002. The victim woke up while Achekzai was fondling her breasts.

Achekzai met another woman at the same Laguna Beach nightclub on Jan. 31, 2004. Later that night, Achekzai drove up alongside the 21-year-old woman and convinced her to pull into a Tustin parking lot, where he raped her in her vehicle, prosecutors said.

Achekzai raped another woman May 3, 2004, near Mt. Soledad in La Jolla.

This story was reported by Times Staff Writer Richard Winton.