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The then 16-year-old posted a video fueling the flash mob-like riots. It draws parallels to the feature film “Athena”, which deals with street battles and police violence in the French suburb.
The smartphone as a murder weapon
The charge was “severe communal violence as a target offender,” for which the youth could have received up to one and a half years in prison. But his confession of fact, as well as his insight that he had done something wrong, led to a lenient verdict. The judge noted that it “just doesn’t appear in the certificate of good character.” On the one hand, he received a probation officer for the duration of the probationary period. He must also receive instruction on the subject of responsible use of social media. His smartphone, “the murder weapon”, was confiscated.
The carpenter’s apprentice had assured in the process that he only wanted to “become famous” with the video on the Internet. On October 30, 2022, he uploaded it and linked it to a photo from the Linz Taubenmarkt. However, he himself was not present at the riots of several hundred mostly young people in the inner city of Linz the following evening. He didn’t want to start a riot, but “had expected it a bit,” he admitted.
“You don’t have to spoil everything for him”
The prosecutor already saw the role of the accused as an inciter if you uploaded a “terrifyingly violent film”. He was aware that “police officers could be injured and critical infrastructure could be damaged”. After the riots, he then boasted on the Internet about what he had instigated. “You have to be responsible for what you do in the virtual world in the real world,” she said.
The defender spoke of a certain “carelessness” of the teenager. He emphasized that his client was “absolutely irreproachable”, a decent young person. “You don’t have to block everything for him,” he said in the opening speech against a hard, general preventive prison sentence. Because the teenager had a rethink and he had separated from friends at the time.
“It was just a stupid idea”
The now 17-year-old said when asked by the judge whether he “pulled the strings in the background” or “just had an idea”: “It was just a stupid idea.” He became aware of this during the house search on December 17, 2022. He would accept the recommendation of the juvenile court aid for a training course on adequate media handling, he said. Because he knows that “people went to the pigeon market” because of his posting. After all, it got 20,000 clicks and 500 likes.
Source: Nachrichten
