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TERRORISM

Austrian resident jailed for terror camp training

A 21-year-old man has been confined to 21 months in jail for the participation in the activities of a terrorist group by a criminal court in Vienna on Tuesday.

Published: 1 July 2014 15:10 CEST
Austrian resident jailed for terror camp training
Flag of Jabhat al Nusra. Photo: أبو بكر السوري/Wikipedia

The  court considered it as proven that he had went to a terror training camp on the Turkish-Syrian border last summer.

There the defendant joined the radical islamic Al Nusra Front and had got "at least an ideological education and basic weapons training", judge Norbert Gerstberger elaborated in the grounds for the judgement.

Although the whole trial was based on circumstantial evidence, the offense of taking part in a terror camp was sufficiently proven against him, the judge announced.

The court orders are not final and will be reviewed in an instance of appeal as the defendant's lawyer pursued a nullity appeal against the verdict.

The Al Nusra Front is considered to be close to Al Queda, and is listed as a terrorist organisation by the UN Security Council.

The man accused of murdering four people in the Jewish museum in Brussels on May 24, Mehdi Nemmouche, is also thought to be a member of Al Nusra.

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TERRORISM

What is the risk of new terror attacks in Austria?

Following the March 22nd attack in Moscow’s Crocus City Hall that left over 140 dead, European governments are evaluating the threat of terror attacks. Is Austria a target for fresh terrorist attacks?

Published: 28 March 2024 12:32 CET
What is the risk of new terror attacks in Austria?

With responsibility for the Moscow attack being taken by the Islamist terror organisation ISIS-K, national intelligence services are reevaluating the threat posed to targets within their borders. 

‘No concrete threat’

Austrian officials have been quick to give their appraisal of the situation. 

“We currently have the Islamist scene under control,” stressed Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of the Directorate of State Security & Intelligence (DSN) – the governmental agency responsible for combatting internal threats – in an interview with the Ö1 Morgenjournal radio programme on Tuesday. 

He continued: “The terrorist attacks in Moscow, for example, definitely increase the risk. But at the moment, we do not see any concrete threat of an attack in Austria,”

Other experts and officials have warned that while there are no concrete threats, Austrians should not be complacent. 

‘Situation is still valid’ 

Interior Minister Gerhard Karner announced tighter security at church festivals during the Easter period, in the days after the attack, and stressed that the high terror alert level introduced after the October 7 Hamas attacks was still in place. 

“This increased risk situation is still valid,” noted Karner.

READ MORE: What does Austria’s raised terror alert mean for the public?

Meanwhile, terror researcher Peter Neumann of King’s College London told ORF’s ‘ZiB 2’ news broadcast on Monday that Austria remains a potential target due to its Central Asian migrant population. 

Neumann noted that countries at most risk are those “in which Tajik and Central Asian diasporas exist and where ISIS-K finds it relatively easy to identify and recruit people”. 

He continued, identifying both Austria and Germany as “countries in which the ISPK is particularly active and which are particularly at risk from terrorist attacks”.

New threats

Austria has not been spared from attacks from homegrown terrorists.

On November 2nd 2020, amid Coronavirus lockdowns, Austrian-born Kujtim Fejzulai shot and killed four, injuring twenty-three others during a shooting spree across Vienna. He was ultimately shot dead by police. 

Fejzulai was already under surveillance by federal authorities for his beliefs and had been released from prison on parole less than a year before. 

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