D.he mild and sunny days in Vienna are reminiscent of a year ago. As in the past, the tables in front of the cafés and bars are well filled, and there is also talk of increasing numbers of corona infections and possible restrictions. November 2, 2020 was the last evening before the second lockdown. Once again, a particularly large number of Viennese were drawn outside. In the “Bermuda Triangle” on Schwedenplatz, where there are many pubs, there was a lot of commotion when a strangely white-clad young man armed with a rapid-fire rifle, a pistol and a machete ran through the neighborhood and shot around. The Islamist-motivated terror thus arrived in the Austrian capital.
The young man, who comes from a Macedonian-Albanian family, fired 78 shots from the rifle and two from the pistol that day. He killed four people and injured more than 20, many of them seriously. Nine minutes after the first emergency call, the man, who had previously seriously wounded a police officer in an exchange of fire, was caught by special forces and shot. The city center was cordoned off, the subways stood still until around midnight it was more or less clear that there were no other armed perpetrators on the way.
Today the investigators are sure that the perpetrator actually acted alone. However, he had a network of Islamist like-minded people – this was also shown by the investigations – who supported him ideally and possibly also specifically in his project and through which he also got hold of arms. Three people from this network have already been charged with membership in a terrorist organization, for example because they passed on propaganda material for the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS). Two of them were convicted in the first instance – and therefore not legally binding. The authorities recently announced that 30 other suspects are being “intensively investigated”. Seven men suspected of being “contributors” who are said to have confirmed the perpetrator with knowledge of his murderous plans or who are said to have supported him in obtaining weapons are in custody. The public prosecutor’s office has so far balanced: 20 arrest orders, 150 telephone surveillance, 30 house searches, around 25 optical and acoustic surveillance, 340 witnesses.
The perpetrator was known to be a violent Islamist
That sounds impressive. The rapid access by the police to the scene of the crime was also rightly praised. But it is undeniable that there were serious mishaps and omissions before the attack. The authorities knew that the perpetrator was a radical Islamist who was prepared to use violence. The now 21-year-old man had already served a prison sentence for membership in a terrorist organization because he tried unsuccessfully in 2019 to get to Syria as a fighter for IS. After his early release subject to conditions, he cooperated with probation officers for the longest time. He was left out of sight by the Federal and State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the judiciary. When notorious Islamist extremists from Austria, Germany and Switzerland met in Vienna in the summer of 2020, the later assassin was there.
The meeting was observed following information from partner services, but there were no consequences for the paroled extremist. Even when a message was sent to the Vienna Office for the Protection of the Constitution from Slovakia that the man had tried to buy ammunition for an assault rifle, the matter remained undone. It was a mixture: the different levels and authorities communicated poorly with one another. The Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism was busy with itself because of earlier turbulence from the time of Interior Minister Kickl (FPÖ). And the security authorities concentrated in the critical time on an action against institutions that are attributed to “political Islam”.
Austria drew some consequences in July of this year with an anti-terror package. In addition to more symbolic innovations (introduction of the offense of “religiously motivated terrorism”, which was essentially already covered by existing laws), it contains tightening for people who, like the perpetrator, have been convicted under the terrorist paragraph. These may include disenfranchisement if there is another, disenfranchisement, and better surveillance after parole. In addition, the protection of the constitution was reorganized. A compensation fund of 2.2 million euros was set up under pressure from representatives of the victims, who have brought legal action against the breakdowns.
On this Tuesday, a memorial service is to be held at the location of the event in Vienna. The traces of the attack are no longer very noticeable in everyday life. In the place of a spontaneously created sea of candles and flowers, a memorial stone was erected in February. In some places where the perpetrator shot, smeared remnants of the neon green markings of the police can still be seen on the pavement. A hole, probably from a bullet in the wall of the synagogue in Seitenstettengasse, into which he had not been able to penetrate, is scratchy with a heart. If you ask passers-by, you hear answers like: “Oh yes, it was only a year ago?”
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