Trial against terror helpers: “He tried to improve himself”

On November 2, 2020, the Islamist terrorist Kujtim F. shot four people and injured many in his attack in Vienna. The trial against the six accused who are said to have helped the 20-year-old before the night of terror continued on Tuesday.

The focus of the judges’ senate were friends of F., they are said not only to have encouraged the later assassin, but also to have supported him in the final preparations a few hours before the attack.

The second accused, 22, is considered a longtime friend of the terrorist. He is said to have been at F.’s house a few hours before the fatal shots were fired in the evening. Supposedly to bring back a book, as the defendant asserted. F. asked him specifically to do so. He met the third accused, also a friend of the assassin, and drove to the apartment of the later gunman. But why was the returned book found neither at F. nor in his apartment? The second accused could not explain it. But he only spoke to the later assassin at the apartment door about “irrelevant things”.

However, the prosecution assumes that the second and third accused helped F. to find a target for the attack. They are also said to have been in the apartment when F. recorded his confession message.

Furthermore, the 22-year-old is said to have been there when the later assassin obtained the assault rifle used in the attack. F. was on probation at the time and also took part in deradicalization courses. F. “tried to improve,” the friend asserted in court.

The third accused is also considered a friend (24) of the terrorist. Like F., the 24-year-old also tried to travel to Syria via Turkey in 2018 and join “IS”. Both were arrested and convicted at the time. After his imprisonment in 2019, he had little contact with F., the third accused claimed. Only later did the contact intensify again. He was present when the said book was returned. In retrospect, he wonders how the later assassin “could have been so calm”. On the way home, F.’s friend received a video via Instagram.

“Can’t speak Arabic at all”

It read in Arabic: “Soon, God willing, we will restore the caliphate to the way it was originally.” The defendant claimed that he did not speak any Arabic and did not understand the content.

The mobile phone evaluations also showed that he repeatedly looked for the name of a restaurant in the immediate vicinity of the later target of the attack. The assassin even called this restaurant on the afternoon of November 2nd.

The third accused is also said to have tried to obtain forged documents for the subsequent assassin to enable him to leave the country. In addition, he is said to have spoken to the assassin in the early morning hours before the attack about how to reset cell phones to factory settings. The trial will resume on December 20th.