A Glenview man who allegedly raped five women whom he picked up while posing as an Uber driver in Wrigleyville and River North during 2016 and 2017 has been sentenced to 45 years in prison after a jury convicted him in one case. Musaab Afandi, 38, is still fighting the other four cases.
Judge Anjana Hansen oversaw the trial and sentenced Afandi after jurors found him guilty of three counts of criminal sexual assault and aggravated kidnapping inflicting bodily harm. He will be eligible for parole in on May 21, 2055.
Afandi was convicted of a 2016 case in which lured a woman into his car from outside a bar in the city by posing as her rideshare driver. He then took her to Skokie and sexually assaulted her.
Another woman whose case is still pending was also allegedly raped in Skokie after Afandi picked her up from a bar in the city.
Police got their first break in the investigation after one of the Skokie victims provided his license plate number. DNA evidence later linked Afandi to three more attacks that occurred in the city proper.
On April 10, 2016, Afandi allegedly picked up a 21-year-old woman who hailed an Uber from Mullens, a now-razed tavern that used to stand at 3527 North Clark in Wrigleyville. He drove her to the 600 block of West Grace and sexually assaulted her in the back seat of his car, according to prosecutors and police records.
Then, on December 11, 2016, he allegedly picked up a 27-year-old woman from a bar on the 200 block of West Chicago Avenue. That victim told police she took a taxi from the bar and woke up in the back seat as Afandi raped her. Investigators later found photographs and video of the woman and her body on Afandi’s phone, prosecutors said.
Afandi allegedly lured another woman into his fake Uber on January 15, 2017, in Wrigleyville. He pulled over on the 3800 block of North Ravenswood and sexually assaulted the 25-year-old woman in his car, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors have said Afandi was never actually employed by Uber.
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