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Extortionist arrested in Graz after murder threats

A 24-year-old man has been arrested after demanding that a woman in Carinthia pay him €310,000, or he would kill her two children.

Published: 5 December 2016 15:15 CET

Extortionist arrested in Graz after murder threats

Photo: Paul Gillingwater

He also told her he had planted bombs in and around her house.

She told the police, and special ops officers were able to arrest the man when she went to the agreed place to hand over the money.

The 53-year-old woman from Völkermarkt received an email on November 30th from an unknown sender, demanding she give him the money otherwise he would kill her two adult children.

He said he had left three explosive devices – in her house and the surrounding area – which he could detonate at any time. He also told her that she was under constant observation, and seemed to know a lot about her house and her family.

Gottlieb Türk, head of the Carinthian police service, said the woman was shocked and scared when she received the email. The man told her that she had to drop off the money in two instalments on Saturday night – at an address in Graz and another in Völkermarkt. “He gave very precise instructions about when and where the money was to be deposited,” Türk said. When she told the police they decided to lie in wait for the man in central Graz. When he turned up at the arranged meeting place, they arrested him.

He turned out to be a young unemployed man, also from Völkermarkt, who knew the woman and her family but was not a close friend. He told the police that he needed money and assumed that she had access to large sums of cash. It’s not clear why he decided to ask for a specific sum of €310,000, or why the money had to be handed over in Graz, in the state of Styria.

He managed to conceal his location and identity very well when sending the email. He has no previous criminal record. He’s now being held in custody in Klagenfurt.

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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