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TERRORISM

Custody extended for wounded Isis teen

A court in Vienna has extended the police custody of a 16-year-old who was arrested three weeks ago after returning to Austria from Syria where he had joined Islamic State (Isis) militants.

Custody extended for wounded Isis teen
The fair-haired teen appeared in an Isis propaganda video. Photo: ORF

The court said that he was a flight risk and there was a danger he would try to rejoin jihadist fighters.

He was arrested at Vienna airport in mid-March with serious injuries, and told police that he had been wounded in a bomb attack in Raqqa, Syria.

His case is due to be reviewed on May 4th. Police and law officials are working to clarify how much a risk the teenager poses to Austrian security and to what extent he has been radicalized.

A psychiatric expert will examine whether he is traumatised or experienced any psychological damage after his time in Syria.

He may be charged with belonging to a terrorist organization, training to be a terrorist, and incitement to commit terrorist offences. 

He is being held in Vienna’s Josefstadt prison and has recently been moved from a hospital ward to a young offenders section.

An international arrest warrant was issued after the teenager disappeared from Vienna in October 2014.

He had posted positive statements about Isis on his Facebook page and shortly after appeared in an Isis propaganda video – dressed in battle gear and armed.

Before he disappeared he had been training to become an insurance salesman, and had only converted to Islam in May.

He told police that he had “wanted to travel” and had been fooled by Isis recruiters into thinking that “one could live in Syria without joining the fighting – and have a house, a wife, and money”.

According to a report from Austrian broadcaster ORF he told police that he worked as an ambulance driver for Isis during the Battle of Kobane, and had taken injured fighters to hospital.

He told police that he had never been active in any battle and that after being seriously injured he had wanted to return to Austria, and that “he felt lucky to have survived the experience”.

He travelled to Turkey with a fake passport to seek medical treatment and then took a bus to Istanbul, where he made contact with his father in Vienna, who helped him secure an emergency passport and booked him a flight back to Austria.

His lawyer, Werner Tomanek, told Austria’s anti-terrorism office that his client “lost his spleen, a kidney and part of his lung” in the bomb attack.

He said that he “had fully confessed and wants to start over” and plans to cooperate fully with the Austrian authorities.

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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