Iraqi asylum seeker Ali Bashar is suspected of the rape and murder of 14-year-old Susanna Feldman - AFP

The rejected asylum-seeker suspected of raping and murdering a 14-year-old German girl was expected to arrive back in Germany on Saturday after being extradited from Iraq.

Ali Bashar, a 20-year-old Iraqi Kurd, was arrested in northern Iraq on Friday night, 24 hours after German police named him as the prime suspect in the killing of German-Jewish teenager Susanna Feldman.

The schoolgirl’s body was found hidden near railway lines in a wood on the outskirts of the Wiesbaden on Wednesday, near the refugee centre where Bashar lived, after an unnamed 13-year-old witness came forward to police.

She had been missing for one month.

Susanna's death has sparked public debate about whether Chancellor Angela Merkel’s 'open-door' refugee policy was culpable.

He had flown back to Iraq together with his parents and five siblings after the girl went missing, travelling on air tickets booked under another name.

Bashar had confessed to the crime, Tarik Ahmad, chief of police of the northwestern Iraqi city of Dohuk, told Reuters news agency.

A cross with a sign reading 'Susanna, 14 year-old, victim of tolerance' is placed among flowers and candles at a makeshift memorial Credit: BORIS ROESSLER/AFP/Getty Images

"The girl was a friend of his. They went on a trip to the woods and there they consumed a lot of alcohol and drugs then got into a dispute and the girl tried to call the police," Mr Ahmed said.

"The suspect became afraid because she was under 18 and he knew if the police came it would be a major charge.”

The police chief said the suspect claimed to have choked the girl to death when she continued to threaten to call police.

Bashar was expected to land by plane at Frankfurt Airport on a direct flight from Erbil on Saturday evening where preparations were being made for him to be transported by helicopter to Wiesbaden police headquarters, federal police confirmed.

German police where Susan's body was found Credit: REUTERS/Thorsten Wagner

Mr Bashar had been living in Germany since arriving with his family during the migrant influx of 2015.

His asylum claim was rejected in December 2016 but he appealed against the decision and was allowed to remain in Germany while the case was ongoing.

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It has since emerged that Bashar had an extensive police file in Germany dating back to April 2016, and was facing charges over a violent robbery in March this year and a separate case of carrying an illegal knife.

He was also investigated by police as a possible suspect in an earlier rape of an 11-year-old girl at the migrant shelter where he was staying.

The murder case comes at time when Germany’s Office for Migration and Refugees is embroiled in a scandal amid accusations of the mishandling of asylum applications and corruption.