Image: Weibold
The spokesman for the public prosecutor’s office in Graz, Hansjörg Bacher, confirmed research by Puls 24, the “Standard” and the APA on request. Lorenz K. is said to have again pursued attack plans on behalf of the IS in prison.
Life imprisonment threatened
The charges against the now 24-year-old and a co-accused fellow prisoner – the two met each other in the Graz-Karlau prison – are already final, Bacher said: “A main hearing date has not yet been announced.” According to the current status, the hearing will take place at the Graz Regional Court for Criminal Matters. Lorenz K. is accused of a multitude of terrorist offenses: attempted murder, attempted endangerment with explosives as well as the crimes of the terrorist organization and the criminal organization. If the conviction is in accordance with the charge, the 24-year-old, whose regular sentence would end on October 20, 2026, taking into account pre-trial detention and after another conviction for serious damage to property in prison, would have to face ten to 20 years or even life imprisonment.
Investigations for three years
Since the summer of 2020, the prosecution in Graz had been investigating Lorenz K., who had been in prison since the beginning of 2017 and who is said to have carried out his renewed terrorist activities in Stein correctional center from November 2019 and, after his transfer to Graz, from January 2020 in Karlau correctional institution. According to the public prosecutor, the long duration of the proceedings was “due to the complexity and the scope of the evidence to be assessed”. “After the long investigation, it’s almost a relief to finally have the opportunity to defend yourself before the jury that has to decide on the indictment and a court,” said Lorenz K.’s defense attorney, the Viennese lawyer David Jodlbauer. The 24-year-old denies having rolled out terror plans in his cells using illegally obtained mobile phones. “My client is confident that the prosecutor’s allegations can be refuted,” said Jodlbauer when asked.
Cult status among IS sympathizers
Lorenz K. enjoys a kind of cult status among IS sympathizers, and not only in Austria, but at least in the entire German-speaking world. Although he has been in prison for many years, the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence (DSN) continues to classify him as a so-called dangerous person. He is said not only to have made and maintained direct contact with other convicted terrorists in prison, but also to have familiarized fellow prisoners with the ideas of the IS and encouraged them in their attitude. One of them was a 33-year-old with multiple convictions who is serving a long prison sentence in the Graz-Karlau correctional institution for attempted murder and robbery. The 33-year-old, who is now also accused, received an IS propaganda video from Lorenz K. via WhatsApp, which he is said to have then distributed.
Planned a bomb attack when he was 17
As a 17-year-old, Lorenz K. had planned a bomb attack on the German US military base in Ramstein for radical Islamist reasons. He also wanted to incite a 12-year-old boy, who was then 12, to carry out a suicide attack on a Christmas market in Ludwigshafen, Germany, with a self-made explosive device at the end of November 2016. Although he was sentenced to nine years in prison by the Vienna Regional Court for Criminal Matters, he evidently did not abandon his belief in IS. According to the available indictment from the public prosecutor’s office in Graz, he was not only active as an IS propagandist via Instagram – several dozen followers had subscribed to him. Above all, Lorenz K. wanted a user who called himself Manfred U. to commit a suicide attack by using an explosive device at an unspecified location in Austria or Germany, as explained in the indictment with reference to evaluations of Instagram chats . Corresponding instructions for making a bomb can be found “everywhere” on the Internet, Lorenz K. stated.
Incitement to suicide bombings
At the same time, Lorenz K. communicated with another IS supporter, to whom he sent IS execution videos, among other things, and from whom he also demanded a suicide attack. “The ummah (community, note) needs you somewhere else. You have to become a shahid (martyr, note)”, Lorenz K. informed his interlocutor. He also forwarded a picture of a bomb to Joel P., noting that in the “packaging” was “a tube with nails and a timer. My bomb. So that’s why I’m here (meaning: in custody, note)” . In the end, the 24-year-old’s radical comments went too far for the German citizen. “Lorenz, we have to talk about your future. It can’t go on like this, always chasing the infidels,” said the man.
At the end of July 2020, Lorenz K. downloaded a video produced by IS to his cell phone in his cell, which shows, among other things, how an IS hostage is killed, a bomb is made and an explosive device is detonated. He sent this file to an unknown person who has not yet been traced. Notwithstanding, the prosecution also qualifies that as an attempted determination to murder.
Cell phone smuggled into bread loaf
It is striking that Lorenz K. almost always had a mobile phone in the various prisons in which he was housed – he is currently being held in the Sonnberg correctional facility – although this is actually prohibited. In the Graz-Karlau correctional institution, he got hold of a smartphone that was smuggled into prison in a loaf of bread, for which, according to a report by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (BVT), which has since been dissolved, 800 euros had to be paid.
Regarding this problem, the Ministry of Justice stated on Thursday on request: “In the Austrian prisons, security and control measures are constantly being carried out. In particular, the cells of the inmates are unexpectedly searched at irregular intervals. To prevent the smuggling of mobile phones, the inmates are particularly monitored in the context of their external contacts.” In addition, each of the 28 prisons has mobile cell phone finders to track down cell phones, which are used on a random basis or in the event of concrete suspicion.
The number of illegal mobile phones seized in prisons has risen significantly in recent years. In 2017, 761 cell phones were detected, since 2019 more than 1,000 every year. 1,180 banned mobile devices were detected in 2021, compared to 1,078 in the previous year. “Maintaining security and order in the prisons is a core task of the prison guards,” emphasized the Ministry of Justice.
Source: Nachrichten
