Terror Trial: A Hate Preacher and Memories

He opened fire with a machine gun in downtown Vienna, killing four passers-by and injuring 23 people, some seriously, until he was shot by the police on the fatal night of November 2, 2020.

Who were the alleged supporters of the Viennese assassin? As reported, six defendants have to answer in court. The terror trial is entering the home straight, the verdicts could come next week.

On Tuesday, an official of the Vienna Office for the Protection of the Constitution spoke as a witness. He charged the fourth accused, a 28-year-old Afghan: This man was with the later assassin in his apartment and had planned the night of terror.

Traces of the defendant’s DNA were found both in the terrorist’s apartment and on the firearms used. According to the witness interviewed, the Afghan had been known to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution since 2014. He had visited mosques in Vienna that were considered radical and where preaching was done in the spirit of “Islamic State”. The notorious hate preacher Mirsad O. was also active in one of the prayer houses. The Serb was considered a “star” of the domestic jihad scene and has already been sentenced to 20 years in prison.

However, the fourth accused Afghan was not conspicuous in the mosques with criminal acts: “It was only visits.” It was about state police investigations, but not about criminal investigations, said the constitutional protection officer. The witness drew attention when he reported that all of the written information that had become known through observations around questionable mosques had already been “deleted” precisely because there were no indications of criminal offenses at the time. In his statements he therefore referred to “memory protocols”.

Elmar Kresbach, defense attorney for the four accused, criticized that the incriminating DNA report was “not lege artis” and demanded a new one. The court has not yet ruled on this request for evidence.