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An unidentified person planted the explosives while the vehicle’s owners were at a prayer meeting organized by the Jehovah’s Witnesses faith community. Whether there is a connection is still being investigated.
The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (LVT) has set up its own investigative team. Criminalists from the State Criminal Police Office (LKA) in Styria, explosives experts from the police and the defusing service also took up the investigation. A crime scene work and the securing of evidence were carried out during the night, it was said on Saturday.
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The car owners, a man and a woman, parked their vehicles between 6:45 p.m. and 9 p.m. in a gravel parking lot near the prayer room in Leibnitz. According to police spokesman Markus Lamb, they should apparently also be allowed to park there. While the members of Jehovah’s Witnesses were still praying, they heard a loud bang from outside, but couldn’t classify it, Lamb said when asked by APA. When the woman went out to her car, she noticed parts of her car lying around.
About an hour later, around 9 p.m., the man got into his vehicle and drove home. After a few kilometers, an explosive device mounted on the underbody also detonated. According to Lamb, the driver was unharmed, but that was just “luck”. Only then was it clear that an explosive device may have detonated under the car in the woman’s car. Both vehicles were damaged.
Motive still unclear
While the investigators are now examining all the components of the explosive devices, potentially endangered facilities are being made aware of and police surveillance is being increased, the investigators said. The motive situation is currently completely open. As the “Kurier” reported, the explosive devices are said to have been pipe bombs. However, the police did not want to confirm or deny this for tactical reasons. For the time being, no one wanted to announce anything about a possible faulty construction between the detonator and the explosives, which is said to have prevented a catastrophe.
The incident is made even more explosive by the fact that the summer congress of the “witnesses” has been taking place in Vienna’s Happel Stadium since Friday and up to and including Sunday. According to the police, around 9,000 believers gather there. The security precautions have been strengthened accordingly, it said on Saturday afternoon when asked by the APA. The State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism is also involved. The meeting took place on Saturday as planned, and it is to be continued on Sunday.
Michael Schumacher, SPÖ mayor of Leibnitz, was shocked in an interview with the APA: “It surprises everyone and one is shocked. The region is known for its well-being and now we are so shaken by a flood of the century, as a society and as a region, and then something like that is added to it. It leaves you speechless and stunned.” The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a completely inconspicuous religious community in Leibnitz and have never attracted negative attention. Schumacher was not brought closer to any conflict in connection with the Jehovah’s Witnesses in his municipality.
For the second time this year, Jehovah’s Witnesses have been confronted with a violent act directed against them in German-speaking countries. In a rampage by a former member in Hamburg in March, seven witnesses died – including an unborn child – and the perpetrator himself. Bombs were then attached to the vehicles of two members during a prayer session in Leibnitz, Styria. Nobody was injured this time.
recognized church
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a state-recognized church in Austria. In May 2009, after more than 30 years of service, the responsible cultural authority gave the then fifth-largest religious community in Austria the green light for status as a religious community. This was preceded by a corresponding ruling by the European Court of Human Rights.
According to their own statements, the Witnesses have a good 22,000 active members in Austria, the largest grouping of which is in Upper Austria. Almost 2,800 members are registered in Styria. Church meetings usually take place in what are known as Kingdom Halls. There are 160 of them in this country. The Summer Congress of Witnesses has been taking place in Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium since Friday and will continue until Sunday, which makes the attack even more explosive.
The basis of the teaching of Jehovah’s Witnesses is derived from the Bible “God’s plan for mankind”. His witnesses are obliged to unconditional obedience to the “almighty God and Creator” Jehovah or Yahweh. As “true Christians” they must bear witness to their God and preach the message of His kingdom.
Unlike the major Christian religions, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe that a person’s soul lives on after death. He has none, but is the soul itself. The Jehovah’s Witnesses have announced the end of the world several times. Because they consider politics and religion to be incompatible, they do not take part in elections. The same applies to demonstrations.
The Jehovah’s Witnesses are known above all for their strong missionary work, in which they go from house to house and publish their magazines “The Watchtower” and “Awake!” want to bring to the woman and the man. The Jehovah’s Witnesses are financed with – according to their own statements – voluntary donations.
Refusal of blood transfusions
The faith intervenes strongly in the lives of the followers in all areas. The Jehovah’s Witnesses also attract attention again and again in the media because of their refusal to accept blood transfusions, which can sometimes be life-threatening. Witnesses are also not allowed to smoke. In private, you like to keep to yourself. Marrying non-Witnesses is discouraged. Marriage is sacred and divorce is only allowed in cases of adultery.
The community was founded by the American Charles Taze Russell at the end of the 19th century as a publishing company for the Bible Students. In 1911 Russell came to Vienna for the first time to give a lecture. There were regular lectures from 1921, and a year later the activities were extended to other Austrian cities.
In 1938 there were 550 active Jehovah’s Witnesses in Austria. Because of the refusal to give the Hitler salute and to do military service, there were persecutions by the Hitler regime, about a quarter of the followers of the religious community were killed. After the war, Jehovah’s Witnesses resumed their organized activity.
Source: Nachrichten
