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POLICE

Half of those arrested after Vienna attack ‘had violent crime convictions’

Eight of those detained following Monday night's terrorist attack in Vienna had previous convictions, including for terror offences, the Austrian interior minister said, as the investigation extended to Switzerland and a second, unnamed country.

Published: 5 November 2020 22:20 CET
Half of those arrested after Vienna attack ‘had violent crime convictions’
People hold a candlelit vigil at the site of the Vienna terrorist attacks. Photo: JOE KLAMAR / AFP

The Austrian interior minister confirmed the prior convictions of the detained, with the investigation extending to Switzerland and a second, unnamed country.

In the wake of the attack in which an Austrian-born man shot and killed four people in a popular nightlife area of central Vienna on Monday night, police arrested a total of 16 men.

Four of them had been convicted for terrorism-related offences, two for violent crime offences, and two for an attempted “honour killing”, Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told a press conference Thursday.

“We have had intensive cooperation with the FBI,” which provided Austrian authorities with “valuable information”, Nehammer added, without giving further details.

The investigation has also led to Switzerland, where prosecutors have confirmed that two Swiss men aged 18 and 24 who were arrested Wednesday had already been the targets of criminal cases over terrorism offences.

Authorities in another country are also investigating “direct links to the perpetrator,” according to Nehammer, but added he wasn't able to name the country at this stage because of ongoing investigations.

Germany's Der Spiegel newspaper reported earlier this week that the Vienna attacker had made contact with German Islamists during an attempt to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State organisation.

Neighbouring countries were helping Austrian authorities as well as Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency, which dispatched two agents to Vienna.

The shooting was the first major such attack in Austria for decades and the first blamed on a jihadist, whom authorities identified as 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzulai, a dual Austrian-Macedonian national who had also been convicted for trying to join IS in Syria.

After killing four people and injuring 22, including a police officer, Fejzulai was killed by a bullet that entered his body just below his left shoulder and pierced through his lung, authorities said. 

'Failure of communication'

Security officials on Thursday also addressed criticism that they did not follow up on a warning from neighbouring Slovakia that Fejzulai had tried to buy ammunition there in July, about seven months after he was released on probation.

Though on Wednesday Nehammer admitted to “a failure of communication” when it came to alerting the justice ministry, Vienna police chief Gerhard Puerstl said the suspect was not initially clearly identifiable in photos sent from Slovakia.

On Thursday, hundreds came together to remember the victims in a candlelit vigil near the scene of the attack, including members of Jewish and Muslim youth organisations.

Earlier imams and rabbis, along with Vienna's Roman Catholic Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, took part in a silent march past the scenes of the attack and prayed together for the victims.

More details have emerged in local media about those who were killed in the attack, the youngest of whom was a 21-year-old named as Nedzip V.

The other victims were a 24-year-old German student at Vienna's University of Applied Arts who was working as a waitress, a 39-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman.

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CRIME

When are police officers in Austria allowed to use their weapons?

Recent police operations have ended up in the shooting - and death- of suspects. What are the rules and guidelines Austrian police officers have to follow?

Published: 21 June 2024 14:30 CEST
When are police officers in Austria allowed to use their weapons?

Austrian police officers, like their counterparts in many countries, are equipped with firearms as part of their law enforcement duties. However, the use of these weapons is strictly regulated by law, with clear guidelines and limitations in place to ensure public safety and accountability. 

Recent incidents have brought renewed attention to these regulations, sparking debate and discussion about when and how police officers are authorised to use force, including the use of firearms. Despite the recent events – with two deaths after suspects were shot by the police within two weeks, the number of such incidents in Austria is not high.

READ ALSO: What rules does Austria have on gun ownership?

In 2022, weapons were used 654 times by officers in 213 different incidents. In many incidents different police used their firearms and often more than once.

In those incidents some 137 people were left slightly injured, four were seriously injured, and no one was killed, according to a Der Standard report.

Provisional figures for 2023 show 328 uses of weapons in 202 different incidents. Sixty-five people were slightly injured, three were seriously injured, and two people were shot dead.

Looking back over a longer period of time, in the past 16 years, 18 people have died as a result of police use of firearms.

What are the rules?

The use of service weapons in Austria is regulated by the Weapons Use Act (Waffengebrauchsgesetz) of 1969, which states that law enforcement agencies such as police officers and municipal police officers may use weapons in cases of “just self-defence”, the report said.

For example, to overcome resistance to an official act, to make an arrest or to prevent the escape of an arrested person. Even then, the use of weapons is only permitted by law “if harmless or less dangerous measures”, including the threat of using weapons, pursuing a fleeing person, the use of physical force or milder means such as handcuffs, “appear unsuitable or have proven to be ineffective.” 

READ ALSO: Is Vienna a safe city to visit?

Only the least dangerous weapon may be used if various weapons are available – service weapons also include tear gas or batons. The purpose of using weapons against people may only be to “render the target incapable of attacking, resisting or fleeing”.

According to the Weapons Use Act, a service weapon is permitted in defence of a person to suppress a riot or insurrection, as well as in some instances of arrest or to prevent an escape. And to arrest or prevent the escape of “an insane person who is generally dangerous to the safety of the person or property”.

In any case, whenever the police fire their weapons, the incidents are the subject of internal investigations by the Investigation and Complaints Office for Allegations of Abuse at the Federal Bureau of Anti-Corruption (BAK-EBM). The authority will decide whether the case was an instance of self-defence and whether the use of a pistol was justified.

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