“Attacks on police officers planned. Use against corona deniers “. The Federal Ministry of the Interior headlined a press release on May 20, 2021. The then Interior Minister and current Federal Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, said that “radical and violent Corona deniers will be held accountable with full severity.” A few days earlier, the Federal Office and Several state offices for the protection of the constitution and the fight against terrorism carried out house searches, voluntary inspections and interrogations of several people. These measures were preceded by the evaluation of chat messages on the “Telegram” messaging service.
“The police did their part to ensure that these people could not complete their work,” said Nehammer on May 20th of the previous year at a press conference, the OÖN reported. It paid off that you kept a close eye on the right-wing extremist scene. “The perpetrators must be punished with the full severity of the rule of law,” said Nehammer.
No criminally relevant facts
Now the OÖN has the results of the investigation from the responsible public prosecutor in Ried. According to Alois Ebner, the spokesman for the Ried public prosecutor’s office, the preliminary proceedings against eight people were suspended because of the deliberate endangerment from explosives (Section 173) and because of the criminal plot (Section 277). “From mid-May 2021, extensive investigations were carried out against the accused in several federal states. Among other things, several house searches, as well as the seizure and evaluation of a large number of electronic data carriers, ”says Ebner. The suspects were subsequently questioned. “Ultimately, no criminally relevant facts could be determined, the initial suspicions could not be confirmed and were credibly and irrefutably invalidated by the accused,” says Ebner.
It turned out that the chats were “completely insubstantial and rocking writing” in a Telegram group. “The suspects had retrospectively regretted the news. “A threat from one of the accused could not be proven. There was also no evidence that they actually drove violently to corona demonstrations. Connections of the accused to the organized corona denier scene at home and abroad could not be found either. The weapons found on one of the accused was legally owned by him, ”says Ebner.
The investigation by the Ried public prosecutor’s office was submitted as a project report to the Linz chief public prosecutor’s office and, subsequently, to the specialist supervision in the central office of the Ministry of Justice. “All bodies agreed to the discontinuation of the procedure,” says Ebner.
Investigations into re-engagement
One of the eight accused, who resides in the district of the Ried public prosecutor’s office, is still being investigated on suspicion of re-employment (Paragraph 3g, Prohibition Act). Pictures with Nazi content were found on his cell phone, which Ebner said had been sent several years ago. However, there was no connection with the other suspected situations.
Source: Nachrichten
