According to German terrorism expert Guido Steinberg, the conviction of four helpers of the Viennese IS assassin has refuted the original theory of a single perpetrator. In the trial surrounding the November 2020 attack, two defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder on Thursday night as supporters of the perpetrator.
Two other defendants received 19 and 20 years in prison. The jury in the Vienna district court saw it as proven that the four men had helped, among other things, in selecting the target for the attack and in procuring firearms and ammunition. The verdict is not yet legally binding.
“If you follow this verdict, then it is definitely the case that we were not dealing with a single perpetrator,” Steinberg from the Berlin Foundation and Science told radio station Ö1. The verdict is understandable and from a German point of view “almost a bit impressive”. “It is quite striking that these prison sentences are significantly higher than what is usual in Germany,” said Steinberg.
Supporters knew each other from chats
The 20-year-old perpetrator was a sympathizer with the Islamic State (IS) terrorist militia. He killed four people in Vienna city center on November 2, 2020 before being shot dead by police. One of the fatalities was a German art student who worked as a waitress in the popular nightlife district. 23 passers-by were injured, some seriously, including some Germans.
According to Steinberg, in recent years it has primarily been single perpetrators who have emerged as terrorists. Without the help of others, these people would have trouble carrying out their attacks, but with supporters the risk changes: “Then it becomes dangerous”.
A total of six men between the ages of 22 and 32 were in the dock in Vienna. According to prosecutors, most of them were active members of extremist chat forums. A 24-year-old man who was sentenced to 20 years had been serving a prison sentence like his attacker friend after both tried to join IS fighters in Syria. Both were released early from prison at the end of 2019.
Defendants distance themselves
Two of the defendants were acquitted of involvement in terrorist murder. However, they were each sentenced to two years in prison for spreading Islamist terror propaganda. Some of the sentences were suspended.
The men in the dock distanced themselves from the assassin again on Wednesday before the verdict was announced. They denied close contact with him and insisted that they were not terrorist sympathizers.
The investigation mishaps in the months before the attack were not a central issue in the process. In early 2021, a commission of inquiry from the Ministry of the Interior criticized in a report that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had not informed the public prosecutor’s office, even though the security authority knew about his meetings with like-minded people and his attempted purchase of ammunition in Bratislava. As a consequence of the mistakes made by the authorities, the Austrian state security system was reformed and de-radicalization measures in prisons improved.
