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TERRORISM

Syrian asylum seeker in court on terror charges

A Syrian man is on trial in Salzburg, accused of having fought with the so-called Islamic State group (Isis), before coming to Europe to claim asylum.

Syrian asylum seeker in court on terror charges
Salzburg regional court. Photo: Andreas Praefcke/Wikimedia

According to the prosecutor the 22-year-old Syrian man worked as a security guard for Isis and fought with them in several places in Syria until January 2015.

After that he’s believed to have travelled to Turkey and across the Mediterranean to Greece, where he joined other refugees along the Balkans route to Europe and claimed asylum in Salzburg.

On Monday the suspect told the judge that he had never joined Isis, and that during the time he is alleged to have fought with them he was working in a restaurant in Istanbul. He said that earlier he had fought with rebel forces against President Assad's government troops.

But prosecutors say that he boasted about having fought with Isis in a refugee centre in Salzburg. Police were able to gather evidence against him from his mobile phone, and from comments and photos of Isis atrocities that he posted on social media sites.

If found guilty, he faces up to ten years in prison. In a similar case, a 28-year-old Syrian man was sentenced to two years in prison.

Prosecutors are also due to press charges against a 26-year-old asylum seeker from Morocco, who investigators say planned terror attacks in Europe and probably had connections to the jihadists who carried out the November 13th Paris attacks which left 130 people dead.

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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