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TERRORISM

Custody extended for Islamic hate preacher

An alleged Islamic hate preacher who was arrested in Vienna over claims he is the mastermind of a terrorist network recruited 64 fighters for Islamic jihad and did shooting and combat training in Vienna to prepare to fight in Syria, according to the prosecutor in Graz.

Published: 12 December 2014 16:03 CET
Custody extended for Islamic hate preacher
Photo: Youtube still

Mirsad O., who goes by the name Ebu Tejma, is a 33-year-old unemployed benefits claimant. He and his pregnant wife and their five children live in a council flat in Vienna.

He was arrested at the end of November when heavily armed police stormed his home, as part of a series of nationwide raids involving hundreds of officers.

A court in Graz has just ruled that Tejma should continue to be held in police custody while investigations continue.

Tejma’s lawyer denies all the charges while police and prosecutors sift through the evidence, and question his associates.

Security service insiders believe that he is one of the leaders of the so called 'Bosnian cell' based in the Meidling district of Vienna that provided logistic and financial support centres for jihadist activities in Europe.

Originally from the small Serbian town of Tutin, Tejma was known in Bosnia and Herzegovina as a preacher of hatred and intolerance.

For the past two years, Austrian intelligence officials have been tapping his communications, monitoring his phone calls and building up a picture of his network. He and 12 others were arrested in the raids on November 28th.

Investigators saw a constant stream of Salafist Muslims while monitoring the Altun Alem mosque in Vienna’s 2nd district during their operation.

The prosecutor in Graz has said that Tejma is "a chief ideologist for the global jihadist movement".

Investigators said that by April 2014 52 people had been radicalized at the Altun Alem mosque and left Austria to join Isis. Twelve other Islamists from Styria and Upper Austria who came in contact with Tejma also left to join Isis.

Some of them were killed and some have since returned to Austria. The majority of the people he radicalized are said to be young Muslims between the ages of 15 and 30.

Tejma studied Arabic and Islamic Law in Mecca between 2002 and 2008, and reportedly received a scholarship from Saudi Arabia to do so.

He is said to have considered going to Syria himself and completed martial arts training and a shooting course at a Vienna-based organization for Chechen Muslims.

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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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