Imprisoned Viennese IS supporter, potential suicide bomber

As an Islamism screening, which is part of the court file, revealed, he was in an “advanced radicalization process” and was probably a potential suicide bomber.

After the boy’s arrest, the terror suspect was subjected to the so-called DyRiAS procedure as part of juvenile court investigations to help make a detention decision. DyRiAS stands for dynamic risk analysis systems, with the Islamism radicalization screener you can identify signs of radicalization processes that are taking place. 13 relevant areas of behavior are queried from which it can be concluded whether the respective test subject has violence-oriented radicalization in the Islamist area or not.

Red Flag Factors

For the 16-year-old at the time of his arrest – he has only been 17 since November 9th – the result was clear. Solidified radicalization was confirmed in all 13 areas. In addition, four so-called red flag factors were identified: the young person wanted to live in a community of IS supporters and be recognized by them and therefore had the desire to travel to an IS combat zone. He already had access to weapons and an extremist environment – he frequented a mosque in Vienna’s twelfth district on a weekly basis, where radical Islamists, including the attacker on November 2, 2020, had said their prayers and heard sermons. He also networked with like-minded people via Telegram, TikTok and Instagram and was involved in group chats with radical content. In a Telegram chat with 19 Islamists, after a previous argument with his father, he announced the attack at the main train station, in which – as he later explained himself – he wanted to die and find entry into paradise.

Based on the proven advanced radicalization process and the red flags, according to the DyRiAS procedure, the 17-year-old actually has “high risk factors” for potential acts of violence – even at the risk of his own death. In the further explanations of the youth court assistance, it is pointed out that the young person said that he suffered from “recurring suicidal thoughts”, “although he had already expressed his intention to commit suicide once to a friend from the mosque”.

These findings correspond to the assessments of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution. The Vienna State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Combating Terrorism (LVT) classifies the 17-year-old as “massively radicalized”. The state security guards did not even have the young person on their radar until his arrest because the current legal situation makes it impossible for the domestic authorities to monitor messenger services, something Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, the head of the State Security Intelligence Service (DSN) Directorate, did in the past warned several times. Only when the DSN received information about the 17-year-old from a foreign partner service and his picture in combat gear that he had posted on social media before he left for the main train station, and compared it with its own material, did it become clear that the boy had already ” appeared in the radical Islamist scene as part of surveillance measures,” as stated in a report by a state security officer.

At least ten “high-risk people” in Austria

The security authorities assume that there are at least ten, and possibly more, radical Islamist “high-risk individuals” in Austria who could carry out an attack at any time. In addition to the 17-year-old from the main train station, an IS supporter of the same age was recently considered exceptionally dangerous, who was only sentenced last January by the Vienna regional court to 21 months of partial imprisonment for terrorist organization after he showed IS propaganda material at his school Sprayed the IS symbol on a bridge pillar and patrolled with a machete with the IS emblem. Just three months after his release, this 17-year-old is said to have resumed IS propaganda and, together with an accomplice, shot a man sitting on a park bench in the thigh with an air gun. At the end of November he and his alleged accomplice will have to stand trial again for terrorist organization and attempted grievous bodily harm; the two have been in custody again since May.

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