Six men between the ages of 22 and 32 are accused, who according to the public prosecutor’s office were not directly involved in the assassination. They are said to have actively helped the assassin in advance. The main hearing will extend over several months. As court spokeswoman Christina Salzborn announced on Monday, negotiations will continue after the first appointment at the beginning of December. A total of 17 days of trial are planned for the time being, judgments will not be made until February 2023 at the earliest.
The accused are essentially accused of the crimes of participation in terrorist offenses (Section 278c Paragraph 2 StGB) in connection with murder, terrorist organization (Section 278b Paragraph 2 StGB) and criminal organization (Section 278a StGB). With their help, the assassin is said to have obtained his weapons and ammunition and was encouraged in his terrorist intentions.
help with preparation
Some of them are said to have helped him prepare for the crime. The oldest of the accused – a 32-year-old of Chechen descent – is said to have obtained a fully automatic Zastava assault rifle, model 70AB2, including the appropriate ammunition, through a middleman from Slovenia and handed it over to the assassin on June 23, 2020. Three months later, the 32-year-old is said to have received a Tokarev pistol and ammunition through the same intermediary.
In April 2019, the assassin had already been sentenced to 22 months in prison by the Vienna Regional Court for terrorist organisations, together with a 24-year-old who had also been charged again. The two had distributed propaganda material from the radical Islamist terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS), justified their methods and objectives and, above all, tried to get to Syria to take part in combat operations there. In December 2019, both men were released from prison, taking into account pre-trial detention. Despite their prejudice and their ongoing support from the Derad association, they stuck to their radical views and their fundamentalist ideas and, according to the indictment, “continued to be loyal supporters of the IS”.
They maintained “lively contact with other people from the radical Islamist scene” via social media and in the form of personal meetings, according to the public prosecutor’s office in their 117-page indictment, which is now final. As a result, the assassin is said to have been working on plans for a terrorist attack while he was still in prison. The indictment speaks of “considerations” about “perpetrating a terrorist attack using firearms in downtown Vienna after his release”.
According to the indictment, the later assassin asked a fellow inmate how weapons could be obtained in Austria, since he wanted to carry out an attack on Stephansplatz after his release. The assassin made no secret of his terrorist intentions “while in custody,” emphasized the public prosecutor. After he was released, he dealt with it “more and more intensively” from April 2020 – initially without the intelligence officers getting wind of it.
In search of weapons, the assassin contacted a childhood friend who was in prison at the time and was using an illegal cell phone to inquire about arms dealers. That’s how the 32-year-old Chechen came into play. The childhood friend, who has now also been charged, is said to have even had discussions about the purchase price of an assault rifle at a personal meeting in the prison.
Another defendant – a 23-year-old man who is the only one of the six who has not been in custody for many months – is accused by the public prosecutor of having accompanied the assassin to Slovakia in July 2020, where the two wanted to buy ammunition. The project failed.
Subsequently, the assassin’s relationship with a 28-year-old Afghan native intensified, to whom the prosecution attributes particularly active support in his murderous plans. The Afghan is said to have even moved to the assassin’s apartment “to support him in preparing and planning the attack,” according to the indictment. The two worked “from then on together in detail on the implementation of the terrorist attack”.
Prosecutors reconstruct last hours
From the indictment it can be reconstructed how the assassin spent the hours before the attack according to the investigation results. On November 1, 2020, he went to his apartment, which he did not leave until the attack. On the afternoon of November 1, the 32-year-old Chechen and the 24-year-old Afghan joined him, “in the final preparations for the attack, in particular in the preparation and ammunition of the murder weapons and (…) in the manufacture of the “Explosive belt dummy worn in an attack” is said to have helped.
In the early morning of November 2, the assassin reset his phone to factory settings and posted a suicide note on Instagram. In the course of the day, his former travel companion to Syria, with whom he had been convicted, and a 22-year-old IS sympathizer also arrived at the apartment. According to the indictment, the two assisted the assassin “with the final preparations for the imminent attack, in particular with the selection of a potential attack target”. According to the indictment, these two men even watched as the assassin armed himself, slipped on a dummy explosive belt made together with the Afghan, took a machete and from 3:08 p.m. to 4:25 p.m. recorded a message of allegiance and the oath of loyalty to the IS and then posted it on the Internet . At 5:44 p.m., the assassin posted the following text on his Instagram account: “Soon – God willing – we will bring it (the caliphate, note) back as it was originally #Islamic State #Caliphate Islamic State #Dubai #Lebanon # Saudi Arabia #Syria #France #Greece #Germany #Turkey #America”.
The confession video was already published on November 3 on IS-affiliated social media channels under the headline “Killing and Injuring of 30 Crusaders by a Soldier of the Caliphate in the City of Vienna in Austria”. For the Vienna public prosecutor’s office, it is “proven beyond a doubt (…) that the assassin was actively supported by the accused in the ideological and logistical preparations for the attack.” The prosecution also assumes that the attack in connection with the renewed publication of the Mohammed cartoons on the occasion of the start of the legal proceedings for the terrorist attack on the editorial office of the French satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” in autumn 2020 and shortly afterwards attacks carried out on behalf of the IS in Nice and in a Paris suburb. Originally, the assassin had apparently planned to fire on a French restaurant in the city center. However, it was closed that evening.
The accused are charged above all by the results of several DNA reports. Genetic traits of the Chechen were found on the pistol used in the attack and cartridges seized at the scene. Traces of the Afghan were found, among other things, on a piece of adhesive tape on the submachine gun, on the MP shoulder rest, cartridges and the machete. In a supplementary report, the DNA expert firmly ruled out that it could have been an indirect transfer of traces. Rather, they are “direct traces of contact”.
The hearing is in the Great Courtroom. It can be assumed that there will be particularly strict security measures.
Source: Nachrichten
