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In Austria, the question is growing stronger how the terrorist attack in Vienna came about. Did the Office for the Protection of the Constitution react too slowly to warnings from outside?
By Nikolaus Neumaier, ARD Studio Vienna
What went wrong This question is not only asked by the Austrian Minister of the Interior, who also admits that mistakes have been made. Days after the attack in Vienna it was clear that the authorities had information and either misinterpreted it or did not pass it on. And so, now the errors and failures of the police, the prosecutors and the protection of the constitution are discussed.
The debates were triggered by reports that long before the attack, in the summer of 2020, the Slovak Interior Ministry had informed Austrian authorities that the subsequent perpetrator and another man had asked to buy ammunition.
Following Slovakia’s warning, the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution carried out a risk assessment of the perpetrator, but it had not yet been completed at the time of the attack. Austrian media report that Austrian authorities had to ask “several times” before receiving confirmation from Slovakia on October 16 that the person who later carried out the attack was the person who later carried it out.
Was the perpetrator warned?
The media and political circles also speculate whether the perpetrator had been warned and whether an action against Islamist circles that had already been planned could have been betrayed.
It was learned that the raids against Islamists would take place on November 3, the day after the terrorist attack. That would also explain that on the night of the crime, strong police forces could gather in the city in a comparatively short time.
The debate over political consequences is getting louder
The FPÖ is now calling for the resignation of the Minister of the Interior, Karl Nehammer. Greens in Vienna ask why Minister ÖVP is still in office. The indictment: Did not prevent a “recognizable terrorist attack.” The SPÖ is campaigning for constitutional protection to be reorganized. The three current organizations should become a powerful one.
Nehammer, in turn, sees his predecessor in office, former Interior Minister Herbert Kickl of the FPÖ, responsible for the mistakes. He accuses Kickl of having destroyed the protection of the constitution. The minister has now created a commission of inquiry. Its mission: to reform the current Federal Office.
On Friday afternoon it finally emerged that the head of the Vienna State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the Fight Against Terrorism had been called because he had not drawn any conclusions, although the authority knew that there had been a meeting between the later perpetrator and Islamists from Germany in the summer.
Authorities take action against mosques
Police assume that the 20-year-old perpetrator had radicalized in two mosques. One of the mosques belonging to the Community of Islamic Faith in Austria (IGGÖ) was closed on Friday on the basis of Islamic Law, according to Minister of Education and Cultural Affairs Susanne Raab (ÖVP). Reason: The “basic positive attitude towards society and the state” does not exist.
A dissolution process has begun against a second mosque. According to the authorities, he does not belong to the IGGÖ and, according to the protection of the Constitution, “he favored the radicalization of the attacker.”
Contacts between perpetrators and Islamists in Germany and Switzerland
In the course of the investigation, there were arrests of suspected Islamists not only in Austria. Two men were arrested in Switzerland and four young men were raided in Germany on Friday. Three of the men are said to have had direct contact with the killer on Monday night; two are said to have met him in Vienna in July.
Furthermore, two Bosnian men are said to have also met the latest perpetrator in Vienna in July, shortly before he went to Slovakia to buy ammunition. The suspicion is in the room that the perpetrator could have received money or the weapon in the meeting with like-minded people.
So far, a total of eight people in Austria have been arrested in connection with the attack. The complaints are: participation in a terrorist group and member of a criminal organization.
How big is the Islamist scene?
In addition to police investigations, the focus is increasingly on so-called political Islam. The “documentation center”, which was only installed in the summer, is doing research here, but cannot yet provide reliable figures on the size of the scene.
However, it appears that the number of those susceptible to the ideology of political Islam is greater than that of the more than 90 people who are classified as dangerous. The documentation office speaks of a diffuse situation, so the Islamists are not limited to the capital, Vienna.
