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Chechen gets life term for killing dissident in Austria

A Chechen man was handed a life sentence in Austria on Friday after being convicted of murdering a Chechen dissident, a court spokesman said.

Published: 7 August 2021 09:39 CEST

Chechen gets life term for killing dissident in Austria

Police arrest a suspect after a 43-year-old Russian was shot in the street in Gerasdorf, near Vienna, on July 4th, 2020. Photo: picture alliance/dpa/APA | Matthias Lauber

Mamikhan Umarov, 43, who was granted political asylum in Austria in 2005 and known locally as Martin Beck, was found dead with gunshot wounds near Vienna on July 4th last year.

READ ALSO: Chechen dissident shot dead in Austria

A former policeman in Chechnya, Umarov ran a video blog critical of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, and worked with Austrian intelligence.

His killer, who was identified only as a 48-year-old Chechen man, had the victim’s blood on his left shoe and traces of gunpowder on his hands when he was arrested, according to investigators.

The defendant had pleaded not guilty at the court in Korneuburg in northeast Austria and vowed to appeal when the verdict was delivered, according to the court spokesman.

No motive for the crime was established, with prosecutors suggesting it was either an arms deal gone wrong or a political murder.

Umarov had given testimony in other murder trials involving Chechens.

Chechnya is a predominantly Muslim part of Russia. Two wars in the 1990s triggered a wave of emigration, with many Chechens heading for western Europe.

But more Chechens have fled into exile in recent years because of disagreements with pro-Kremlin Kadyrov, who activists accuse of repeated rights violations.

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Does Austria have a drug problem?

Police in the Austrian capital, Vienna, this week received a special nasal spray used as an antidote for opioid overdose. It’s now part of the force’s first aid kits, as Austrian media reported.

The spray is used as an antidote for poisoning with opioids such as fentanyl and is part of the standard equipment of US police units. In Austria, the departments specialising in combating drugs will now also receive the spray vials, the Ministry of the Interior confirmed.

Fentanyl is considered to be around 50 times stronger than heroin, and unintentional contact can have serious consequences – including respiratory arrest. “Inhaling large quantities is particularly dangerous,” the ministry said, according to the Der Standard report. However, skin contact can also pose a risk under certain circumstances.

READ ALSO: Is cannabis legal in Austria?

The situation in Austria is different to that in the USA, as Daniel Lichtenegger, Drug Coordinator at the Ministry of the Interior and Head of the Central Office for Combating Drug-Related Crime at the Federal Criminal Police Office, explained to the newspaper. “But of course, we want to be prepared so we don’t lag behind.”

What is the situation in Austria?

In the USA, which is plagued by the opioid crisis, the drug is now the most common cause of death for people between the ages of 18 and 49. Drugs like fentanyl are estimated to kill around 70,000 Americans every year. But what is the situation in Austria?

The latest data from the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA) reveals the prevalence of drug overdoses across the EU, highlighting the significant role of opioids.

While around 6,400 drug-related deaths were estimated in the EU in 2022, the report notes this figure is likely an underestimation due to incomplete data from several countries.

According to the available data, opioids, often combined with other substances, were the leading cause of drug-induced fatalities in the EU, accounting for over three-quarters of such cases in 2022. This issue is particularly pronounced in Austria, where opioids were implicated in 92 percent of reported drug-related deaths.

The country is only behind Denmark (94 percent) and tied with Bulgaria (92 percent). All other European countries where there is available data have fewer than 90 percent of drug-related deaths connected to opioids.

READ ALSO: Do foreigners in Austria have to carry ID?

When it comes to drug-related deaths per million people aged 15-64, Austria’s numbers are still worrying, but not the highest in the European Union (plus Norway and Turkey). Here, Ireland has the deadliest drug problem (97 deaths per million people), followed by Estonia (95) and Norway (86).

Earlier this year, the Health Ministry sounded the alarm in Austria, when it posted a report showing an increase in fatal overdoses and in the proportion of young deaths.

Around 35,000 to 40,000 people in Austria are addicted to opioids. According to the report, opioid addiction mainly affects men (three quarters), people aged 25 and over (around 90 percent) and those living in urban areas.

As the report shows, almost half of those addicted to opioids live in Vienna, where 101 directly related deaths were recorded in 2021 (Vienna figures for 2022 were not available in the report).

This makes Vienna the leader in a comparison of federal states and has reached a peak since measurements began in 2003. In 2020, 74 people died from drug overdoses in the federal capital.

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