“This is pure theatrical thunder,” said Werner Tomanek, the 19-year-old’s defense attorney. His client did not make a full confession after his arrest.
At a press conference in the Interior Ministry last Thursday, it was announced that the 19-year-old had “fully” confessed to the attack plans. The danger was “really very real,” investigators confirmed to the APA on Tuesday. According to the report, the 19-year-old admitted after his arrest that he had driven to the Ernst Happel Stadium in his car with explosives, knives and machetes and wanted to kill “incredulous” Taylor Swift fans in front of the stadium. He left it open whether he would use explosives or stabbing weapons. He would have decided at short notice, depending on the specific situation on site.
“Overacting at its best”
Tomanek countered this in an interview with the APA on Tuesday: “I still don’t have a file. But the fragmentary record of his initial interrogation shows that he only had some thoughts along these lines. He had neither the means nor the opportunities nor the explosives to carry it out. It would not have been possible to carry it out.” The accusations against the young man from Ternitz (Neunkirchen district) are “overacting at its best. They (meaning: the authorities, note) are exaggerating it in order to get surveillance methods that they then cannot handle. You have to know how an ignition works before you buy a Ducati,” said Tomanek.
According to his legal representative, the 19-year-old admitted in his initial questioning that he had “basically Islamist tendencies”, spoke out in favor of Sharia law and admitted that he had sought and found “contact with such people” through relevant channels on the Internet. “He is a rabid Internet Rambo,” said Tomanek. The Ternitzer also swore an oath of loyalty to IS and posted it online, but deleted it again a short time later. “Because he thought it was cool. He wanted to imitate the attacker on November 2nd,” Tomanek replied when asked about the boy’s motives in this regard.
“There may be mental problems”
The IS supporter, who killed four people in an attack in downtown Vienna on November 2, 2020, before being shot dead by police, may have been a kind of role model for the 19-year-old. Both have or had North Macedonian roots, both gained muscle mass within a short period of time using steroids and grew a full beard, both looked like what you would imagine a typical Islamist to look like. And both tried their hand at security. While the later Vienna attacker had temporarily worked as a security guard in a hospital, the 19-year-old did not find a job in the security field. Not surprising for his legal representative: “There may be mental problems. He may have dropped out of school because of this. He was unfit for the army.”
“We used to imitate Bruce Lee. He copied the poses of the Vienna attacker,” Tomanek said. His client was “a lone wolf with no social contacts.” The 19-year-old had a “dirty mindset” and contacts with Islamists: “But the alleged attack plans were pure figments of his imagination.”
“These are Guantanamo conditions”
Tomanek criticized the fact that he had still not been given access to the files, as well as the fact that the 19-year-old was not allowed to receive visitors while in custody. The boy’s mother was not allowed to see her son. “These are Guantanamo conditions,” complained Tomanek.
The 17-year-old co-suspect, who is also being investigated by the Wiener Neustadt public prosecutor’s office for terrorist association and criminal organization, is said to have known about the 19-year-old’s plans for the attack, which his defense attorney Nikolaus Rast denies. At the beginning of August, the 17-year-old and another youth, who is being called as a witness by the public prosecutor’s office, are said to have taken part in a “test drive” in Ternitz in the 19-year-old’s car, which was equipped with a blue light and siren. The 19-year-old is said to have hoped to use this equipment to get as close as possible to the Happel Stadium when committing the crime, under the pretense that he was on official duty.
17-year-old was known to the authorities
In contrast to the 19-year-old, who the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) did not have on its radar as a so-called threat until July 2024, the 17-year-old was officially known under Section 278b of the Criminal Code – the provision criminalizes participation in a terrorist organization. He was employed by a facility company that was entrusted with setting up the stage for the Swift concert series at the Happel Stadium. He was arrested last Wednesday on the way to his workplace after a cell phone tracking.
According to information provided by the APA, the facility company employed seven other men who had come under the scrutiny of state security and security authorities on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist organization. This does not constitute an accusation against the company in question, as for such a company – unlike a security company – a thorough security check of employees and the gathering of relevant information is not mandatory and is not generally common practice.
