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TERRORISM

Austria foils pride parade attack: interior ministry

Austrian police have arrested three youngsters, including a 14-year-old, for allegedly planning an attack at Vienna's pride parade, which drew hundreds of thousands of people, officials said Sunday.

Published: 18 June 2023 13:21 CEST
Participants of the
Participants of the "Rainbow Parade" (Pride Parade) on the Ringstrasse in Vienna on June 17, 2023. Austrian police have arrested three young people for allegedly planning an attack on the parade. Photo: Alex HALADA / AFP

The men aged 14, 17 and 20 and suspected of being Islamic State (IS) sympathisers were held ahead of the parade, according to domestic intelligence agency (DSN) chief Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.

He told reporters that there was “never any threat” to those who participated in the Pride Parade in central Vienna on Saturday.

“They sympathised with the Islamic State online and shared extremist content. In this context, the suspects focused on the Pride Parade as a potential target for an attack,” the interior ministry said in a press release.

During raids on two premises on Saturday, authorities discovered weapons and other evidence against the three Austrians with Bosnian and Chechen roots.

One of them was already previously known to police. They had planned to use “knives or vehicles” in the attack, police told reporters.

Some 300,000 took part in the parade for LGBTQ rights.

In November 2020, a convicted Islamic State group sympathiser went on a shooting rampage in downtown Vienna, killing four and wounding 23 others before police shot him dead.

It marked the Alpine nation’s first deadly jihadist attack.

Earlier this year, a Vienna court sentenced two alleged accomplices of the gunman to life in prison, while two others received prison terms of 19 and 20 years.

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CRIME

Austrian court approves incest rapist Fritzl’s transfer to regular jail

An Austrian court said Tuesday it had approved the transfer of incest rapist Josef Fritzl to a regular jail as the 89-year-old was now unlikely to commit a crime.

Published: 15 May 2024 11:37 CEST
Austrian court approves incest rapist Fritzl's transfer to regular jail

Fritzl, who has changed his name, repeatedly raped his daughter he locked in a cellar for over 24 years, fathering seven children with her.

Served with a life sentence in 2019, Fritzl has been held in jail for the mentally ill who pose a high degree of danger in Krems, some 80 kilometres (50 miles) northwest of Vienna.

In a ruling published Tuesday, the Krems regional court said Fritzl “can be transferred… to normal detention” since he “no longer poses a danger that requires placement” in a jail psychiatric unit.

It noted Fritzl’s “advanced dementia and physical decline” and said he was “no longer likely to commit a criminal offence with serious consequences”.

It also set a 10-year probation period.

READ ALSO: Could Austria’s notorious incest rapist Josef Fritzl one day be released?

The decision confirms an initial ruling in January, which was overturned by a higher court in March after prosecutors appealed.

Monday’s ruling follows a hearing on April 30, where updated findings by psychiatric experts were presented.

The verdict can still be appealed within the next two weeks.

Contacted by AFP, Fritzl’s lawyer, Astrid Wagner, called the ruling “a big success”, adding that she doesn’t expect prosecutors to appeal.

“Fritzl could be transferred as soon as the appeal period of two weeks has lapsed,” Wagner said, adding that she would apply for a conditional release from jail by 2025.

Fritzl was jailed for the murder by neglect of a newborn baby he fathered with his daughter Elisabeth while holding her in the specially-built basement of his house.

He was also found guilty of incest, sequestration, grievous assault and 3,000 instances of rape.

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