Next Monday, the regional court for criminal matters will be tried against a contact man of the assassin in Vienna, who killed four people in the city center on November 2, 2020 and injured 23 others, some seriously, before he was shot by the police. The 26-year-old Chechen is charged with the crimes of the terrorist group and the criminal organization.
According to the indictment, the worker is said to have shown “a high affinity” with the radical Islamist terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS) since 2015, and to have supported it ideologically. His attitude is said to have become more radical as a result, in the summer of 2019, according to the Vienna Public Prosecutor, he joined a strictly Salafist-jihadist group. A direct involvement in the terror attack last autumn can not be proven – currently -. The attack will therefore not be the focus of the negotiation.
The 26-year-old was arrested on November 3 as a contact person for the assassin. He has been in custody since then. In the course of the investigation, it was found that the Chechen had distributed IS propaganda material via WhatsApp and met with people from the radical Islamist scene, including the Vienna attackers. These encounters took place since June 2020 in the form of “Saturday meetings” in an apartment in St. Pölten, which served to deepen Arabic skills. On Sundays, according to the indictment, “a small, select group of people” were given religious instruction in the apartment, whereby radical beliefs and IS are said to have been upheld. At two of these meetings – specifically on September 27th and October 25th – the later assassin from Vienna is said to have participated and openly worn and presented an IS ring.
The accused is said to have belonged to the “inner circle” of this group, according to the indictment. Accordingly, he had one of three keys to the apartment in St. Pölten, which contained a library with radical documents. In an interview with the APA, his defender Nikolaus Rast emphasized that the Chechen was only interested in learning Arabic. He did not roll over any terrorist plans. As for WhatsApp, the charges include “five messages in a five-year period”. The propaganda performance imputed to the 26-year-old could therefore not have been great.
A number of witnesses have been summoned to the hearing. The verdict is due to fall on Monday evening.