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The attack in Vienna made the Zurich authorities perk up. Just hours later, two Islamists are arrested in Winterthur. Who are you?
Before the Vienna assassin wreaked havoc in the Austrian capital, he also had contacts with well-known Islamists in Winterthur.
It is Tuesday morning, a few hours after the Vienna attack. It’s hectic in Zurich. Representatives from the cantonal police, the cantonal intelligence service, the federal criminal police and the prosecution are rushing to meet for an exchange. They call the group of specialists “Vienna”. Time is running out. At that time, Austria did not have reliable information on the number of perpetrators. But for the Zurich authorities it is already clear at that time that a connection with Switzerland and, in particular, with Winterthur is possible.
Why? It has already been shown in the past that the Islamist scene in Winterthur is very well interconnected in German-speaking countries. The Vienna-Winterthur axis played an important role in this. This was especially evident in the case of Sandro V., the so-called Emir of Winterthur. He had exclusive contact with the Bosnian-Austrian preacher Abu Tejma, a convicted Islamic State agitator. Until his arrest in 2014, V. exchanged more than 1,300 WhatsApp messages with him and visited him several times. In September V. was sentenced to 50 months in prison. The judges found it proven that he was an “absolutely fanatic supporter and supporter of IS”.
The Zurich authorities also assumed this Tuesday after the terrorist attack that the Vienna-Winterthur axis has not been cut, despite the fact that these figures have disappeared. Patrick Céréda, head of media for the Zurich cantonal police, says: “We had to assume a reference to Switzerland from the beginning and examine various scenarios. In recent years there have been connections between the Salafi milieu in Winterthur and the Viennese extremists. ”
Soko, take control
Céréda says: “We know from the procedures that have already been completed and from the findings of our special commission of the Master of relevant relationships.” To explain: Specialists have been meeting in this Soko for several years. There he deals with information relevant to security in the field of Islamism.
According to Céréda, the authorities take on more than one aggressor until well into the day. Finally, information arrives that two young men from Winterthur were in contact with the murdered killer. The Austrian authorities confirmed this shortly after. And then one thing is for sure: the man from Austria acted alone.
Investigating authorities are now grappling with more questions: Where and how often did the three men meet? Were there other participants? Did you even know about the terrorist plans? According to Céréda, one question was fundamental: “Do you pose an imminent threat to the canton of Zurich after your colleague’s terrorist attack?” Therefore, avoiding danger was the highest priority.
It is therefore urgent to find the two young Islamists, which at first is not so easy. In the early hours of Tuesday afternoon, the “Vienna” working group finally made the decision to accede. A special police unit travels to the places where the two men are and detains them. Then search the houses of the Islamists. The mission does not end until the afternoon. However, the investigation is still ongoing.
Who are the two men?
Research now shows that the older of the two is a man who has already participated in the so-called an-nur trial. Four years ago, ten believers detained two men at the controversial Winterthur mosque of the same name, threatened, beat and humiliated them, and asked them to hand over data and cell phone photos.
The attackers described them as “traitors to the faith”, suspecting that they were spies who had passed inside information about the well-known house of prayer to a journalist. Only when the police arrived did the horror of the detainees end. Eight of the torturers were found guilty at that time and two of them were expelled from the country. The guilty verdicts are not yet final.
The court did not believe the statements of the 24-year-old, who was detained by the special unit on Tuesday. The judges did not believe him that he stayed in the women’s prayer room throughout the attack and did not want to have noticed anything. However, he was acquitted “in case of doubt of the accused.” This judgment is not final either.
In connection with the terrorist attack in Vienna, the prosecution has requested preventive detention for the 24-year-old, according to the request. The decision of the mandatory measures court is still pending. The man’s attorney declined to comment when asked.
Bushido fan and Islamist
The second suspect, an 18-year-old man, received negative attention even before his arrest by the special police unit, and is well known to law enforcement authorities. Winterthur’s attorney for minors is conducting an investigation into him for violating the ISIS ban and depictions of violence, as a spokeswoman said on request. Authorities ordered the young man’s arrest on Thursday. It is the presumption of innocence.
What is surprising is how early in his life he faced questions of faith. At age 12, the defendant opened a Twitter account. Although his first tweet was about the German rapper Bushido, two years later he distributed a YouTube video of the controversial Kosovar preacher Shefqet Krasniqi, with the title: “Questions from a Christian.” The same clergyman used to be a guest in Swiss mosques. In his home country, he was accused of supporting terrorism, among other things, but was acquitted in 2018.
The young man’s YouTube account also shows some anomalies. For example, he has subscribed to a channel that distributes videos with titles such as “Only what Allah says is right” or “Do not put another god next to Allah.” He has also saved some playlists of Arab and Albanian clergymen. In his sermons, for example, Muslims who do not pray regularly are called unbelievers and apostates. Another preacher explains that followers of Islam who wear pants over the ankles will end up in hell.
What exactly connects the two Winterthur people to the Vienna bomber is still unclear and authorities are still investigating. Interestingly enough, the local Salafi scene still seems to be active. With the closure of the An Nur mosque in 2017, their gathering place disappeared, and with the fall of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the dream of the caliphate was shattered. But that doesn’t mean that the medium in Winterthur has disappeared with him.
Security authorities assume the site still includes about 60 people. Instead of meeting in a mosque, since the closure of the An-Nur mosque, they have been meeting behind closed doors, secretly, changing places.
