It is said that the terrorist in Vienna deceived the radicalization program – VG

He was a 20-year-old Austrian citizen with roots in northern Macedonia who was behind the terrorist attack in Vienna on Monday night. Four dead and 22 wounded have been confirmed after the attack.

In April 2019, he was sentenced to 22 months in prison for trying to go to Syria to join the IS terror group. This was confirmed by Interior Minister Karl Nehammer at a press conference on Tuesday, writes Reuters.

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However, just a few months later, he was released due to his young age, according to the interior minister.

At the press conference it was also revealed that the terrorist had been part of a de-radicalization program after the verdict.

“Despite all the external signs that he was integrating into society, the attacker apparently did the exact opposite,” Nehammer said during the press conference.

When asked by Der Standard how he could go unnoticed, the Home Secretary replied:

– Because he deceived the de-radicalization system so brutally, so passionately, that there were no indications.

The perpetrator served time in a local prison in Austria and was put by the court in a de-radicalization program there, according to Der Standard. The newspaper writes that because time in custody counts, the perpetrator had served two-thirds of the sentence as early as December.

– thought he had learned

VG has spoken with lawyer Nikolaus Rast, who defended the perpetrator in court in 2018, when he was convicted of attempting to travel to Syria.

– It was a stupid boy’s idea to go there. The impression left after the hearings was that he had learned from his mistakes. I thought I had learned the difference between right and wrong after getting out of jail. He was obviously wrong, Rast says.

The lawyer says his job was done when the man was released from jail in December of last year.

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– Did he ever express to you that he wanted to carry out something like the attack on Monday?

– Never. We can only imagine what has happened to him since I last spoke to him almost a year ago, he replies.

According to Professor Tore Bjørgo from the Center for Extremism Research at the University of Oslo and the Police Academy, a very low proportion of convicted terrorists commit new terrorist acts after serving their sentences.

Society still has little tolerance for such relapses.

– It becomes a scandal when a released terrorist convict returns to terrorist activity. It is politically unacceptable that perhaps five out of every hundred convicted terrorists resume their terrorist activities, Bjørgo tells VG.

– Unable to call programs an error

According to Bjørgo, research in this field says that “there are only between three and eight percent of convicts terrorists » who have committed acts of terrorism after their release.

By comparison, says Bjørgo, it is “between 25 and 60 percent who end up back in the criminal justice system” of common convicted.

For convicted terrorists, these figures mean that more than 90 percent do not return to terrorist activities, according to the researcher.

– I know of a couple of serious cases in England in which released terrorist prisoners, who have gone through de-radicalization programs, have nevertheless committed a new serious terror afterwards. At the same time, there are many who have been through the same programs, who have not committed such terrorist crimes afterwards.

– Therefore, it cannot be said that such de-radicalization programs are a failure, even if there are some failed cases, with tragic results.

Believes that programs should be customized

Bjørgo is supported by Associate Professor David Hansen at the university and educational center of the Norwegian Prison and Probation Service, with a PhD in, among other things, Political Islam, Radicalism and Violent Extremism.

In an email to VG, he writes that he agrees with Bjørgo that one cannot call failed programs, but adds:

– One may wonder if the result would have been the same anyway: these programs must, to be effective, be tailored and tailored to the individual.

According to Hansen, some of the content of the programs may arouse opposition from some of the inmates. This content can be, for example, “religious messages with which the inmates do not agree”, he writes and adds:

– But apparently they choose to accept because it is negative that the prison course “abandons” such programs.

According to Hansen, it may also be that in other cases the real challenges have not been “addressed.”

– The prisoner may also have shown good progression and been labeled deradicalized along the way, then reverting to old patterns, or carrying out other types of crimes after incarceration, Hansen writes.

I was not under surveillance

According to Nehammer, there are many indications that the terrorist was still close to the IS terror group. Before the attack, he is said to have posted a photo of himself on Instagram where he was posing with a gun.

During the attack, it is said that he was armed with an automatic rifle, a pistol and a machete.

After his release in December last year, he was no longer under the surveillance of the Austrian security service, according to Der Standard.

Interior Minister Nehammer spoke during the press conference about a “dividing line” between those responsible – the police, the prosecution and the courts – which led to the perpetrator being discharged from the de-radicalization program and released early. from prison.

On Tuesday afternoon, the country’s Justice Minister defended early release, saying that it is common for convicts to be released after serving two-thirds of the sentence.

So far, a total of 16 people have been arrested in connection with the terrorist attack.