Hate-Crime Raid: More Suspects Arrested in Styria

The arrested individuals are two Austrian citizens in their early 20s. This brings the total number of arrests to 20, as reported by the Styrian State Police Directorate. The decision regarding possible pre-trial detention for the two young men was still pending on Friday.

Investigations into Hate Crime Expand

A week ago, the task force set up by the Styrian Criminal Police Office on behalf of the Graz Public Prosecutor's Office arrested 15 suspects in a large-scale operation – twelve men and three women. Three more individuals were arrested the following weekend. Now, exactly seven days after the first raid, two more arrests have been made in connection with alleged hate crime offenses.

In addition to the 20 arrests so far, a total of 28 house searches have been conducted. According to the police, 13 of the accused are currently in pre-trial detention.

Head Shavings and "Confession Calls": Perpetrators Acted Particularly Brutally

The ongoing investigations and interrogations have confirmed the extent of the brutality with which the perpetrators acted against their victims. They are said to have lured mainly men to meeting points under certain pretexts and then partially beaten and humiliated them. Contrary to initial investigation findings, only about a third of those affected are likely to have homosexual tendencies.

Some victims had their heads shaved or were forced to call close relatives and tell them about secret sex dates. "Even though only a fraction of the seized evidence has been evaluated, chat logs and videos of the crimes show what unites the individual and ideologically diverse suspects in their joint actions against their victims: the obvious enjoyment of raw violence," said police spokesman Markus Lamb.

In this case, group dynamics of the young perpetrators, who acted in a division of labor, apparently led to an increasingly dangerous spiral of violence that could have led to death, according to the police. "In addition to various forms of humiliation, the focus of the investigators is primarily on various offenses such as bodily harm, dangerous threats, coercion, aggravated robbery, and even attempted murder. Furthermore, the criminal offense of a criminal organization is also being examined by the public prosecutor's office."

Perpetrators apparently wanted to live out "violence fantasies"

The majority of the suspects, aged 14 to 26, were mostly confessing. Although the police assume a high number of unreported cases, there have so far been only 17 known victims of the assaults by name. About a third of them were apparently specifically targeted because of their homosexual tendencies, as the perpetrators saw them as "easy prey" and hoped that they would not go to the police out of shame.

In the case of the previously known heterosexual victims, legally unobjectionable meetings with younger women may also have been the reason for the crimes, the investigators announced. "These dates were - consciously or unconsciously - misinterpreted by the suspects," the investigations revealed. "One thing unites all these acts: hate and massive use of violence," said Lamb. The perpetrators apparently wanted to live out their "violence fantasies."

Renewed call to other affected individuals

Other victims have probably not reported to the police out of shame so far, which also makes the investigations more difficult regarding the perpetrators. According to the spokesperson, investigations of this dimension are new, and they are doing "pioneering work," because in the viewed violence videos, often neither the location nor the time of the crime, sometimes neither the perpetrator nor the victim is known. This requires a high level of investigative effort.

Victims of such crimes can expect special protection from the investigative authorities, which is why the call remains to confidently contact the LKA Styria at the phone number 059133/60-3333 or by email at LPD-ST-LKA-AG-VENATOR@polizei.gv.at.

(APA/Red)

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