Media representatives from Germany and abroad gathered in front of the entrance gates to the Great Assize Court, which opened 15 minutes before the start of the hearing. At 10:00 a.m., five defendants were brought into the hall by a special unit from the prison guard. Another suspect is at large.
“I am convinced that each and every one of you knows what you did on the evening of November 2, 2020,” the prosecutor addressed the jury directly at the beginning of her statement. She admitted that she “felt fear and panic” herself at the time. The assassin and his contributors had it all down to: “An IS man carried out a terrorist attack on behalf of the IS militia and not only hit the victims’ relatives, family and friends, but all of us, all of Austria, in the heart .”
The six accused – with one exception known to the intelligence officers for many years as a supporter of the radical Islamist terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS) – had “causally contributed to the execution of the crime” and thus “aimed at public peace”.
The main hearing lasts several months
According to the public prosecutor’s office, the six men were not directly involved in the terrorist attack, but are said to have helped the assassin, who killed four passers-by and injured 23 people, some seriously, on November 2, 2020 in downtown Vienna. They are mainly charged with the crimes of involvement in terrorist offenses involving murder, terrorist organization and criminal organization.
The main hearing will extend over several months. On Tuesday, the indictment will be presented first, followed by the pleadings of the defense attorneys. The interrogations of the accused will probably not begin until the next date in early December. A total of 18 more days of negotiations are planned after the start, and judgments will not be made until February 2023 at the earliest.
Assistance in preparing for crimes
The accused are essentially accused of the crimes of participation in terrorist offenses (Section 278c Paragraph 2 StGB) in connection with murder, terrorist organization (Section 278b Paragraph 2 StGB) and criminal organization (Section 278a StGB). With their help, the assassin is said to have obtained his weapons and ammunition and was encouraged in his terrorist intentions. Some of them are said to have helped him prepare for the crime.
The oldest of the accused – a 32-year-old of Chechen descent – is said to have obtained a fully automatic Zastava assault rifle, model 70AB2, including the appropriate ammunition, through an intermediary from Slovenia and handed it over to the assassin on June 23, 2020. Three months later, the 32-year-old is said to have received a Tokarev pistol and ammunition through the same intermediary.
co-convict in court
In April 2019, the assassin had already been sentenced to 22 months in prison by the Vienna Regional Court for terrorist organisations, together with a 24-year-old who had also been charged again. The two had spread propaganda material from the radical Islamic terrorist militia IS, justified its methods and objectives and, above all, tried to get to Syria to take part in combat operations there.
In December 2019, both men were released from prison, taking into account pre-trial detention. Despite their prejudice and their ongoing support from the Derad association, they stuck to their radical views and their fundamentalist ideas and, according to the indictment, “continued to be loyal supporters of IS”.
Plans already in prison
They maintained “lively contact with other people from the radical Islamist scene” via social networks and in the form of personal meetings, according to the public prosecutor’s office in their 117-page indictment, which is available to the APA. According to him, the assassin is said to have been working on plans for a terrorist attack while he was still in prison. The indictment mentions “considerations” about “perpetrating a terrorist attack using firearms in downtown Vienna after his release”.
According to the indictment, the later assassin asked a fellow inmate how weapons could be obtained in Austria, since he wanted to carry out an attack on Stephansplatz after his release. The assassin made no secret of his terrorist intentions “in detention,” emphasized the public prosecutor. After he was released, he dealt with it “more and more intensively” from April 2020 – initially without the intelligence officers getting wind of it.
Terror Trial Preview
Six men have been on trial since Tuesday: According to the public prosecutor’s office, they are said to have helped the assassin in the terrorist attack in downtown Vienna two years ago.
Gun search also in prison
In search of weapons, the assassin contacted a childhood friend who was in prison at the time and was using an illegal cell phone to inquire about arms dealers. That’s how the 32-year-old Chechen came into play. The childhood friend, who has now also been charged, is said to have even had discussions about the purchase price of an assault rifle at a personal meeting in the prison.
Another defendant – a 23-year-old man who is the only one of the six not in custody – is accused by the public prosecutor of having accompanied the assassin to Slovakia in July 2020, where the two wanted to buy ammunition. The project failed.
Subsequently, the assassin’s relationship with a 28-year-old native Afghan intensified, to whom the prosecution attributes particularly active support in his plans. The Afghan is said to have even moved his residence to the assassin’s apartment “to support him in preparing and planning the attack,” according to the indictment. The two worked “from then on together in detail on the implementation of the terrorist attack”.
hours before the attack
From the indictment it can be reconstructed how the assassin spent the hours before the attack according to the investigation results. On November 1, 2020, he went to his apartment, which he did not leave until the attack. On the afternoon of November 1, the 32-year-old Chechen and the 24-year-old Afghan joined him, where they were “in the final preparations for the attack, in particular in the preparation and ammunition of the murder weapons and (…) in the manufacture of those carried in the attack Explosive Belt Dummy” are said to have helped.
In the early morning of November 2, the assassin reset his phone to factory settings and posted a suicide note on Instagram. In the course of the day, his former travel companion to Syria, with whom he had been convicted, and a 22-year-old IS sympathizer also arrived at the apartment. According to the indictment, the two assisted the assassin “with the final preparations for the imminent attack, in particular with the selection of a potential attack target”.
According to the indictment, these two men even watched as the assassin armed himself, slipped on a dummy explosive belt made together with the Afghan, took a machete and from 3:08 p.m. to 4:25 p.m. recorded a message of allegiance and the oath of loyalty to the IS and then posted it on the Internet . At 5:44 p.m., the assassin then posted the following text online on his Instagram account: “Soon – God willing – we will bring it (the caliphate, note) back as it was originally #Islamic State #Caliphate Islamic State #Dubai #Lebanon # Saudi Arabia #Syria #France #Greece #Germany #Turkey #America.”
Contact marks on weapons
The confession video was already published on November 3 on IS-affiliated social media channels under the headline “Killing and Injuring of 30 Crusaders by a Soldier of the Caliphate in the City of Vienna in Austria”. For the Vienna public prosecutor’s office, it is “proven beyond a doubt (…) that the assassin was actively supported in advance by the accused in the ideological and logistical preparation of the attack”.
The accused are charged above all by the results of several DNA reports. Genetic traits of the Chechen were found on the pistol used in the attack and on cartridges seized at the scene. Traces of the Afghan were found, among other things, on a piece of adhesive tape on the submachine gun, on the MP shoulder rest, cartridges and the machete. In a supplementary report, the DNA expert firmly ruled out that it could have been an indirect transmission of traces. Rather, they are “direct traces of contact”.