Planned attack on Pride in Vienna: Now there are the first indications

The authorities there were able to seize a cell phone from a suspected jihadist, on which investigators found chat histories with the accused. One of them is said to have communicated about a planned attack in Vienna at a “gay parade”.

He is said to have stated that he wanted to run over participants in the event with a car or attack them with knives, as joint research by “Puls 24”, “Standard” and the APA revealed. In the investigations against the 15-year-old Viennese and the 18- and 20-year-old brothers from St. Pölten, this is the first concrete indication of a planned attack. So far, IS propaganda has been found on the three’s cell phones; the youngest is said to have made it himself, founded a “terror channel” and had several bomb-making instructions.

• more on the subject: Attack on Vienna Pride planned: 15-year-old had his own “terror channel”

The suspected Islamist living abroad, whose cell phone has now revealed further details, is said to have had contact with the St. Pölten brothers via various social media platforms. First to the 18-year-old, who is said to have made contact with his big brother. In the spring of 2023, communication is said to have taken place with the foreign suspected jihadist about a planned attack in Vienna, more precisely at a “gay parade”.

Brother “psychologically” supported

The 18-year-old brother chatted with at least two suspected IS supporters outside Austria, discussing plans to attack the Vienna “Pride Parade” and the prospect of purchasing an “AK-47” and a large knife for a terrorist attack in the Czech Republic acquire. His older brother is said to have “at least supported him psychologically”.

A report from the deradicalization agency “Derad” from mid-October said that the brothers were “trying to do everything right.” In the case of the younger of the two, “real radicalization in the sense of entrenched extremist views or behavior patterns could not be determined based on previous conversations.”

Fundraising for gun purchases

But the investigators also found something on the cell phone of the young man, who was only 14 at the time of the Vienna Pride parade, which indicates that the young man had become radicalized. He is said to have created and edited propaganda material promoting terrorism, to have used a chat group to fundraise for arms purchases for the Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP), and to have stated that he wanted to join the ISKP in Afghanistan as soon as he came of age.

The alleged attack plans first became known the day after the Pride parade, when the Directorate for State Security and Intelligence (DSN) informed the public in a hastily called press conference that they had thwarted an attack and carried out several house searches of the suspects. The DSN was made aware of the three by a foreign partner service. The investigators found some terrorist propaganda in the chats known so far, but there was no connection to “Pride”. The three young men are being investigated as terrorist groups and criminal organizations in connection with the alleged attack plans. The 14-year-old is also suspected of providing instructions to commit a terrorist offense. All three suspects are now at large again.

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