Vienna murder trial: long prison sentences for terror helpers

Two other defendants were sentenced to 19 and 20 years in prison in Vienna’s court on Thursday night. The jury determined that the four men had helped select the target for the attack and obtained firearms and ammunition.

The 20-year-old perpetrator was a sympathizer of the Islamic State (IS) terror militia. He killed four people in central Vienna on November 2, 2020 before being shot dead by police. One of the fatalities was a German art student who worked as a waitress in the popular entertainment district. 23 passersby were injured, some seriously.

The prosecutor had also accused two other men of contributing to the murder by preparing the murder. However, the jury acquitted her of this main charge for lack of evidence. But they were each sentenced to two years in prison for spreading Islamist terror propaganda. Part of the sentences were suspended. The verdicts are not yet final.

According to prosecutors, most of the six suspects, aged between 22 and 32, were active members of extremist chat forums. The killer and one of the suspects were convicted of the assassination attempt because they had tried to travel to Syria and join IS fighters there. Both were released from prison early in late 2019.

The young men in the dock again distanced themselves from the killer on Wednesday before the verdict was announced. They denied close contact with him and insisted they were not terrorist sympathizers.

“For me it was a horrific act that cannot be justified in any way,” said a 23-year-old defendant. He had driven the later perpetrator to the Slovak capital Bratislava, where he tried in vain to buy ammunition. He did not realize what the perpetrator was planning. “I distance myself from any terrorist group,” he said. This defendant was eventually acquitted of the murder charge.

The investigative mishaps in the months leading up to the attack were not the focus of the trial. In early 2021, an investigative committee of the Ministry of the Interior criticized in a report that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution was aware of the renewed radicalization of the perpetrator and the attempted purchase of ammunition in Bratislava, but the prosecutor. As a result of the authorities’ mistakes, the Austrian state security system has been reformed and deradicalisation measures in prisons have been improved. (sda/dpa)