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Austria on Wednesday recognized a bug chain at the time of preventing the attack in Vienna that resulted in the death of four people, including the early release from prison of the author of the attack, a supporter of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).
Two days after the attack, the first of an Islamist nature in the history of Austria, the police, which have already arrested 14 people, continue to investigate the trajectory and possible accomplices of the jihadist Kujtim Fejzulai, killed Monday by security forces.
Fejzulai, 20, born in Vienna to parents from North Macedonia, had been sentenced in April 2019 to 22 months in prison for trying to travel to Syria to join IS, but was released from prison before serving his entire sentence. .
The Austrian Prime Minister, Sebastian Kurz, acknowledged that this release was “without a doubt a mistake.”
“If he had not been released, then the attack would not have occurred,” said the conservative leader in statements to public radio.
In addition, the intelligence services had been alerted by their colleagues from the neighboring country of Slovakia that the jihadist had tried to buy ammunition in that country, the Interior Minister acknowledged. Karl Nehammer, at a press conference.
The minister also acknowledged that the author managed to “deceive” the de-radicalization program that he was following.
During an interview with the agents who were guarding him, Fejzulai had condemned the recent attacks in France, explained the director of Public Security, Franz Ruf.
Nehammer also said they found photos of Fejzulai recently shared on Facebook in which he posed with a Kalashnikov and a machete and carried the IS slogan.
“Why didn’t they realize it?”
The mistakes have caused consternation in the Central European country.
The attack in Vienna, claimed by the IS, also occurred when there was great tension and vigilance in Europe due to the jihadist threat, after two spectacular attacks in France, one in Nice and the other the beheading of a teacher, Samuel Paty.
The Austrian Interior Minister blamed his predecessor, a leader of the far-right FPÖ, for causing “considerable damage” to the intelligence services.
The FPO government stepped down from power in 2019.
“No one would have thought that someone was capable of committing an attack of this type,” the lawyer told AFP. Nikolaus Rast, who defended him during the trial in April 2019 and described him as an “introverted” boy and “a lost soul seeking his place” in society.
“Without wanting to put their finger on the sore, if they were experts, why didn’t they realize it (of their radicalization)?”, Said the lawyer.
The security forces remain on alert and on Tuesday they seized a large quantity of material during the detention of 14 people, whom they were interrogating.
Two other people were arrested Tuesday in Switzerland, where Fejzulai had family ties.
Those two Swiss, aged 18 and 24, were being investigated for terrorism-related issues.
After the attack, Kurz called on the European Union to improve the fight against “political Islam”, a “ideology” that represents a “danger” for the “European model of life”.
Kurz assured that they are reflecting with “joint initiatives” with the French president, Emmanuel macron, whose country is also a victim of the scourge of Islamist terrorism.
Macron’s visit to Vienna on Monday has been replaced by a videoconference meeting due to scheduling issues related to managing the health crisis.
The Viennese tried to return to normal on Wednesday, after an attack that coincided with the entry into force this week of a new lockdown in Austria to curb the covid-19.
The re-publication of the cartoons of Muhammad in France It sparked a wave of anger in the Muslim world and calls for attacks in Europe multiplied.
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