Death threat against Zadic: Wiener (68) admitted to prison – politics

After unequivocal death threats against Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) and other government representatives, a 68-year-old man was arrested and taken to the Vienna-Josefstadt prison on Tuesday. As announced by court spokeswoman Christina Salzborn in the evening, a judge from the regional criminal court ordered that the man be temporarily arrested in accordance with Section 429 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

According to an expert report obtained by the judiciary, the 68-year-old man has a higher degree of mental and emotional abnormality. Peter Hofmann, one of the most renowned psychiatric experts in the country, classifies him as incapacitated and therefore not guilty. According to Hofmann, the 68-year-old has developed a pathological delusion that makes him dangerous. Consequently, crimes with serious consequences would be feared if countermeasures were not taken.

The 68-year-old runs a controversial website that has long attracted attention with racist and xenophobic content. Due to various contributions with defamatory statements about people of color and people of Arab origin, which he had published since 2016, a case of hate speech against the man is already pending in the regional court. Given that he presented behavioral problems at the first hearing last June – among other things, as a defendant he stated that a “change of system” was imminent and that he himself would soon be ennobled as a count – the judge had a psychiatric opinion obtained.

Based on the findings of the expert Hofmann and after the 68-year-old woman announced a few days ago that the federal government would be “annihilated” by a third party and announced through the pregnant Minister of Justice Alma Zadic (Greens) that she no longer “It would guarantee the birth of her child.” experience, “the Vienna prosecutor’s office was in danger of delays. She had a court-approved arrest warrant, on Monday the handcuffs clicked for the 68-year-old.

In the next few days it will be decided whether the man will remain in Josefstadt prison, where there is a department for the sick, or whether he will be transferred to a public hospital for mental illness. It can be assumed that the prosecution will promptly submit a request to the regional court for the 68-year-old man to be placed in an institution for mentally abnormal lawbreakers (Article 21 (1) of the Penal Code). In addition to the open process for incitement to hatred, this could include the most recent preliminary investigation – threats against the federal government are classified as dangerous by the Public Ministry – which may be included in the previous one for procedural reasons.