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The Vienna State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight Against Terrorism (LVT) only submitted an initial risk assessment ten months after KF’s early release.
The interim report on the terrorist attack in the center of Vienna on November 2, 2020 is available. Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and Justice Minister Alma Zadić (Greens) had commissioned an independent commission of inquiry to clarify shortcomings and setbacks in or around the run-up to the terrorist attack.
The latest murderer was released in early December 2019 from a 22-month prison sentence for terrorist organization. With regard to probation, the report indicates that the court did not follow the recommendation of the juvenile court assistance regarding the prohibition of contact and psychotherapeutic treatment of the young man. This is a decision of the independent judiciary based on the law.
The risk assessment took ten months
While the judiciary was given the right to act, the commission, chaired by Ingeborg Zerbes, criticized the actions of the Interior Ministry. The initial assessment for the risk assessment of the subsequent killer, KF, took almost ten months, too long. The report literally says:
Following a threat against him (December 17, 2019, shortly after his conditional release on December 5, 2019), in which he was uncooperative, LVT Vienna appointed him for a risk assessment according to RADAR-iTE. In fact, it only submitted an initial assessment on September 11, 2020, which had to be improved twice, and therefore was only completed on October 7, 2020. The agency justified the lengthy duration of the assessment process with the lack of resources and lack of time available for RADAR-iTE assessments in addition to the other tasks. If so, the Commission believes that it would be a lack of organization: the fact that an initial assessment takes almost 10 months does not seem acceptable. “
The Commission also sees errors in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight Against Terrorism (BVT) regarding the warnings from Slovakia:
“When trying to buy ammunition suitable for military weapons, BVT only recognized KF as one of the buyers four weeks after a referral from Slovakia to BVT, because BVT let this time pass before asking LVT Vienna for identification.”
The reason they had been waiting for KF’s identity to be confirmed from Slovakia does not make sense to the commission: an LVT Vienna employee was suspicious of KF in the Slovak images. As this person in charge was involved in the official act against KF at the time, his presumption should have had the same effect on BVT as a confirmation from Slovakia, the report says. Consequently, a significantly higher risk rating should have been made.
Recommendations to the judiciary
The commission of inquiry presented two specific recommendations to the judiciary. On the one hand, in the case of convicted Islamists, “the work of de-radicalization, which would be important in the execution, should be better anchored structurally and legally and better financed financially.” Second, before convicted terrorist offenders are released, case conferences should be organized “in which the various institutions, all of which are supposed to contribute to security, periodically exchange information in a confidential setting.”
According to Zadić, the recommendations of the first anti-terror package would be expanded and made mandatory, at least in all cases related to extremism. A corresponding draft is already being evaluated. The final report of the commission of inquiry should be available by the end of January. According to Zadić, the conclusions and recommendations of this would be incorporated in the second part of the anti-terrorism package and in the reform of the penal system.
The commission, which was created on November 26, is examining the work of the courts, prosecutors and law enforcement agencies related to the attacker. In addition, the actions of the departments directly responsible for preventing terrorist dangers are verified.
(ozl)
