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TERRORISM

Teen terror suspect released from custody

A 14-year-old terrorist suspect who was arrested two weeks ago in St Pölten, Lower Austria, has been released from custody.

Teen terror suspect released from custody
St. Pölten Regional Court. File photo: APA/Fohringer

Mertkan G, a Turkish national who has lived in Austria for the past eight years, has had his passport taken away and has been ordered to see a psychologist and continue with his education.

He was allegedly planning to travel to Syria and had been plotting a series of bomb attacks at crowded targets such as Vienna’s Westbahnhof railway station. The Islamic State is reported to have offered him money to carry out such a terror attack.

Michaela Obenaus, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor's office in St. Pölten, said that the 14-year-old is on preliminary probation and that considering his age it had been decided he would be treated "more leniently" and would be better off continuing with his school work than being held in police custody. He will have to report regularly to his parole officer.

A press release from St. Pölten Regional Court said that such an approach would help deradicalize the youth. An expert will examine him to determine how mature he is. In Austria young people are considered to be criminally responsible from the age of 14.

Mertkan G had been under police surveillance since the beginning of October, as he had been making extremist statements and appeared to have been radicalized.

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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?

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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