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Swedish teen investigated for Isis links

A 17-year-old girl from southern Sweden who was arrested on Saturday night at Vienna’s Westbahnhof station is being investigated on suspicion of “membership of a terrorist organization”, according to Austrian police.

Published: 7 December 2015 16:41 CET

Swedish teen investigated for Isis links

Vienna's Westbahnhof rail station.

The girl had been on the international wanted list since Wednesday when her family reported that she had left Sweden to join the Isis extremist group in Syria. Her family were reportedly able to track her phone to Vienna, and then informed Austrian police.

Police spokesman Roman Hahslinger told Austrian national radio that the girl had been taken into police custody, but that “there was no evidence that she planned to carry out terror attacks in Austria”.

“The girl told police that she did not intend to travel to Syria and that she has no connection to Isis. She just wanted to meet some friends, who don't actually live in Austria,” Hahslinger said. The girl’s mother travelled from Sweden to Austria and was present when her daughter was arrested.

Hahslinger said that it was now up to the courts to decide whether the teenager should be extradited to Sweden. Her friends, who she told police she was meeting in Vienna, will also be scrutinised by Austria’s police intelligence agency.

According to our Swedish news site, the girl’s family fear that she has been brainwashed by Isis after watching videos online.

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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