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Teenager in court for fatal knife attack

A 17-year-old Afghan boy accused of stabbing a 31-year-old man to death on a German language course in March has told a court in Vienna that he never meant for anyone to die.

Published: 25 September 2015 10:09 CEST

Teenager in court for fatal knife attack

AMS

The teenager, who arrived in Vienna with his mother and sister in 2013, was taking an AMS German language course so he could catch up with his Austrian peers at school.

A fight broke out between him and the older man, who was also from Afghanistan, over the discussion of music and Islam. The teenager had reportedly told the 31-year-old father-of-two, whose passion was to make music, that he did not listen to music that the Quran does not allow.

A scuffle broke out as a result and the two had to be separated by colleagues and the supervisor.

According to prosecutors, the teenager had then planned to “finish” the other man and returned to the course the next day with two knives, attacking the 31-year-old and stabbing him to death.

The defendant challenges this version of events, however, and says he only brought the knives before he was fearful of his life following threats made by the victim during the fight.

He said when he returned to the course the next day the 31-year-old tried to choke him so he went to stab his hand, but got his stomach instead.

“I want to apologise. I regret that a person was killed,” the defendant told the court on Thursday. “I thought that he would kill me.”

This contradicts statements made by witnesses and the police, however, that suggest the victim neither attacked nor threatened the life of the defendant before he was attacked.

The victim, who leaves behind a wife and two young children, received 17 cuts and stab wounds, including fatal punctures to his lung, stomach, diaphragm, and liver. The teenager fled following the incident but was caught a week later near a motorway in the town of Vösendorf.

The defendant pleaded partially guilty but told the court he was acting in self-defence. If found guilty of murder he could face up to 15 years in jail. The case has been postponed until November.

Are there 'young gangs' forming in Vienna?

Austrian tabloid media jumps on such stories: a group of teenage girls breaking into cars in Linz or vandalism and robberies committed by young people in Vienna. Particularly in the capital, it seems that there was a rise in crimes committed by groups of young people. But does that mean that Vienna has a gang problem?

According to the newspaper daily Der Standard, the Vienna Provincial Police Directorate (LPD) repeatedly states that the much-cited youth gangs do not exist but that there is “an increase in young people appearing in groups and committing offences”.

What does that mean, and what is the difference between “young people appearing in groups and committing offences” and gangs?

According to the police: “The term gang is commonly used in everyday language – without a precise definition in this context. In criminal law, however, the term is clearly defined. From a criminal law perspective, a gang is an organised, hierarchically structured group of people intent on committing offences on an ongoing basis.”

READ ALSO: Which crimes are on the rise in Austria?

According to the police, they are dealing with “groups that come together spontaneously” and are not “hierarchically organised.” These groups mostly commit “thefts or minor robberies” but are not criminal organisations.

So, technically, Vienna does not have a “youth gang” problem, but it does have an increase in young people in groups committing crimes – though the police didn’t share official numbers.

A recent Kurier report stated that the number of crimes committed by young people and children under the age of 14 has doubled in the last ten years.

At the same time, there has only been a slight increase among young people over the age of 14 and even a decrease among young adults. The main crimes committed by young people and adolescents are theft, damage to property, assault, burglary and dangerous threats.

Christian Holzhacker, Head of Education at the Association of Viennese Youth Centers, told Der Standard that it is important not to “stigmatise” an age group and that the word gang is often used in an “inflationary way”. He points out that in relation to the size of the Viennese population, the number of minors committing crimes is small, even if it is increasing.

He also highlighted that stigmatising regions or groups of young people who get together in public spaces is not the answer. “If you want to fight crime, you have to look at the realities of the lives of the people who have committed crimes,” he said.

READ ALSO: Is Vienna a safe city to visit?

What are the police doing about the crime?

Austria’s federal criminal police office has gathered a new special task force to combat youth crime (EJK). According to the Ministry of the Interior, the idea is to recognise the new phenomenon and combat youth gangs in Austria.

The task force is set to carry out checks in public spaces, particularly in urban areas and “potential hotspots”, Kurier reported.

The task force also set up a “panel of experts” to suggest how parents can be more responsible, how children’s use of social media and cell phones can be improved, and how the asylum system can better accommodate young migrants.

However, Dieter Csefan, head of the task force, told Die Presse that most young offenders were born in Austria.

“There are unaccompanied minors, but the young people we meet in the groups and gangs usually have parents. And the prolific offenders often come from a normal home. They can also be native Austrians. So it’s not always just Afghans or Syrians”, he said.

He also mentioned that “lowering the age of criminal responsibility is one suggestion” to fight crime. Currently, the age is set at 18, but there are discussions and proposals to lower it to twelve. However, “that alone is not necessarily enough”, he added.

READ NEXT: Which parts of Austria have the highest crime rates?

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