2024-01-08 14:19:01
On Monday, the Vienna regional court extended the pre-trial detention by four weeks for two terror suspects who belong to a cross-border network of the radical Islamist group “Islamic State Province of Khorasan” (ISPK) and were involved in plans to attack St. Stephen’s Cathedral and Cologne Cathedral meant to be. Court spokeswoman Christina Salzborn announced this in response to an APA request. “The previous reasons for detention remain valid,” said Salzborn.
The suspected Islamists – a 28-year-old Tajik and his 27-year-old wife from Turkey, who have been living in Vienna since 2022 – were held in a refugee accommodation in Vienna-Ottakring shortly before Christmas and were arrested on December 25th for escape, Danger of blackout and commission of crime was taken into custody. The Vienna public prosecutor’s office is investigating the alleged terrorist cell, in which a 30-year-old Tajik living in Germany is said to have been in charge, for terrorist association (§278b StGB) in connection with terrorist offenses (§278c StGB).
The two Viennese terror suspects denied all the allegations once morest them at the detention hearing on Monday followingnoon, Salzborn said: “They continue to plead ‘not guilty’.” Despite this, the two did not appeal once morest the court decision. The pretrial detention order is therefore legally effective until February 8th. A Chechen who was also originally taken into custody was released last Friday on the orders of the public prosecutor. The prosecution no longer believes there is any serious suspicion of the crime in his case. Regarding the 47-year-old, “there was not a single piece of evidence from the beginning,” emphasized his defense attorney Florian Kreiner in a recent interview with the APA. “He was only arrested because he happened to live right next to the 28-year-old Tajik in the refugee accommodation,” said Kreiner.
The 30-year-old Tajik was taken into custody on December 24th in Wesel on the Lower Rhine “to avert danger.” Shortly beforehand, the police had received information regarding a possible attack scenario at Cologne Cathedral. According to the Cologne police, they were referring to New Year’s Eve and the turn of the year. In addition to the tip-off regarding the possible attack plan in Cologne, the German security authorities had received a tip-off before Christmas regarding a possible planned attack on St. Stephen’s Cathedral in Vienna and warned their Austrian colleagues.
The 30-year-old had met the Viennese terror suspects several times by December 20th, first on December 8th, 2023 in the Ottakring refugee shelter, where the arrests later took place. The 30-year-old, who had been in the focus of the German Office for the Protection of the Constitution for a long time and who was therefore under surveillance, was observed filming St. Stephen’s Cathedral in a manner untypical for tourists, checking surveillance cameras and knocking down the walls. In the meantime, the 30-year-old flew to Istanbul for a few days, where other participants in the terror cell are suspected, returned to Vienna on December 18th and took photos and video recordings of the Prater on December 19th – apparently another potential attack target – before he returned to Germany on December 20th.
The 30-year-old was arrested on the basis of a European arrest warrant requested by the Vienna public prosecutor’s office. He is currently in the Cologne correctional facility; the Austrian justice system has already initiated extradition proceedings. The German law enforcement authorities are not standing in the way of this; the public prosecutor’s office in Cologne announced on Monday that it would submit an application for detention pending extradition. This will be submitted to the Higher Regional Court (OLG) in Cologne, an authority spokesman explained. It is the first step in a multi-stage process that might end with the man’s transfer to Austria. The spokesman explained that the admissibility of detention pending extradition is being examined. For example, if the Higher Regional Court denies this during the course of the proceedings, then the man should theoretically be released immediately. The entire process might take a total of “a few weeks,” according to the public prosecutor’s office.
Meanwhile, following the Christmas and New Year celebrations, security measures and close communication with the security authorities will be maintained in St. Stephen’s Cathedral. As cathedral priest Toni Faber announced, there will be another meeting with the Vienna Police Department on Tuesday in order to be informed regarding the current threat situation and to coordinate further action.
Faber was relieved that there were no incidents during the Christmas services. There was never a traffic jam at the entrances to the cathedral and the police carried out their task “with great sensitivity,” the cathedral priest thanked the emergency services. Overall, the uncertainty of many people had an impact on the number of people attending church services, said Faber. These were “noticeably lower than normal”. Some parents also did not send their children to serve at Christmas services out of concern.
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