Victim Kidnapped and Tortured: Trial of Mafia Clan in Vienna

At the Vienna Regional Court on Tuesday, a trial concerning an extortionate kidnapping in mafia circles is taking place under strict security measures - a photography and filming ban is in effect inside and outside the courtroom. The accused are a 39-year-old Montenegrin and a 50-year-old Serb, whom the prosecutor attributes to the feared Montenegrin Kavač clan, which operates across Europe and is also linked to assassination attempts and shady dealings in Vienna.

Mafia Trial for Extortionate Kidnapping at the Vienna Regional Court

The accused are alleged to have lured two Croatians, now aged 41 and 64, to Vienna in March 2020, along with other accomplices, and held them in a rented apartment on Seitenberggasse. According to the indictment, the men were tied up, mistreated, and threatened with death to initially extort the younger man's father, and later the 64-year-old, into paying one million euros. The kidnapped men reportedly experienced mortal fear - the accommodation was completely covered with nylon and handsaws were displayed. When the thoroughly intimidated 64-year-old, who is believed to have made his living from large-scale cigarette smuggling, assured that he would pay at least 750,000 euros, the two men were released.

Cross-Border Investigations

The accused were identified after cross-border investigations, involving the Federal Criminal Police Office as well as Serbian and Croatian police authorities. After their arrest and transfer to Vienna, the accused exercised their right to remain silent and have not commented on the allegations against them since. They are incriminated by the communication they conducted with other gang members before, during, and after the incriminated acts using supposedly secure crypto phones. The encrypted Sky-ECC mobile phones were seized during investigations against the Kavač clan. The chats ran over a server in France, which was cracked in a cross-border cooperation by police authorities in Belgium, the Netherlands, and France. Subsequently, the chats were decrypted with the help of the FBI, leading to the uncovering of the criminal acts now under trial.

Victims Bound "Like Mummies"

The 47-page indictment extensively quotes what the two accused and other accomplices involved in the criminal organization wrote to each other. The two victims were "completely bound like mummies," had "a knife under their throat, they are lying, are silent," it states at one point. Another participant reports: "Brother, they kidnapped, tortured, beat."

(APA/Red)

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