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The Vienna attacker apparently had connections to Germany, which are now the target of investigators. Police are conducting raids on various residential and commercial premises of suspected Islamists.
By Michael Götschenberg, ARD Terrorism Expert
According to information from ARD capital studies The homes and business premises of several suspected Islamists in Germany are currently being searched. The background to this is the investigation by the federal prosecutor’s office as a result of the Islamist-motivated terror attack in Vienna on Monday night.
The contacts of the 20-year-old Vienna attacker on the Islamist scene in Germany are recorded. As announced by the Federal Prosecutor’s Office, there are a total of four non-suspects in Pinneberg, Kassel and Osnabrück. The killer is said to have met two of them in Vienna in July 2020, and there was contact with a third person via the internet. There was no direct contact with the fourth person, only indirect contact via the Internet.
Seehofer commented on contacts in Germany
Searches are not entirely unexpected. The Federal Minister of the Interior, Horst Seehofer, had declared yesterday in the Bundestag that the Vienna attacker had connections to threats in Germany. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has so far assumed that contact persons on the Islamist scene in Germany were not involved in the preparation of the attack. No one was arrested, just trying to secure possible evidence, the federal prosecutor said.
In the Monday night attack in central Vienna, four people were killed and more than 20 injured, some seriously. The killer himself was shot and killed by the police. Kujtim F., 20, with Austrian and North Macedonian citizenship, tried in 2018 to join the “Islamic State” in Syria and Iraq. However, the attempt failed. He was arrested in Turkey and sentenced after being transferred to Austria.
As reported by various media outlets, he is said to have lived under the same roof for several days during the stopover in Turkey with two German Islamists who also wanted to join IS. It is unclear if these contacts were relevant in any way. At least the people being sought today are supposed to be other contacts, they learned that ARD capital study in security circles.
Very well connected criminal
Kujtim F. was evidently well connected on the Islamist scene. Austrian researchers announced yesterday that there are also references to Switzerland. Since the event, investigators have temporarily arrested 15 people between the ages of 16 and 28 in Austria, all allegedly radical Islamists.
How close the network was is still being determined. In addition, investigators are investigating how close ties were to the “Islamic State.” The Islamist terrorist organization called for the attack Tuesday night and distributed a video in which Kujtim F. pledged allegiance to ISIS leader al Qurashi.
Preparations with the help of IS?
However, it is still unclear whether contacts in ISIS supported the attacker in preparing for the attack. The “Islamic State” lost the territory to which it had been subjected in Syria and Iraq, but has continued to exist as an underground organization ever since. The chairman of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Thomas Haldenwang, said yesterday in an interview with the ARD capital studythat IS is in the process of reorganizing. However, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution still does not see a coordinated approach in Western Europe with concrete structures and plans.
