IS Supporter in Vienna Sentenced

A young person from the circle of Beran A. (Beran A. is allegedly suspected of planning an attack on the Taylor Swift concert scheduled for August 9, 2024, at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna) was held accountable on Monday at the Vienna Regional Court. The 16-year-old was legally sentenced to a one-year prison term for terrorist association and criminal organization, which was conditionally suspended with a three-year probation period.

Deradicalization Program and Psychotherapy

Additionally, the boy was instructed to continue a deradicalization program at the Extremism Counseling Center, which he had voluntarily started, and to undergo psychotherapy at the Men's Counseling Service. Probation assistance was also ordered.

The apprentice-seeking individual was likely a close friend of Luca K., who is considered a confidant of Beran A. and was assigned as a staff member for stage setup at the Happel Stadium before the three-day concert series of pop diva Taylor Swift, before being arrested on August 7 along with Beran A. Since then, both have been in pre-trial detention. Through Luca K., authorities came across the significantly younger supporter of the radical Islamic terrorist militia "Islamic State" (IS), with whom a jury at the Gray House now had to deal.

The defendant, who visually appears almost childlike, had been active for the IS since early May 2024. He was just 15 years old when he began collecting and distributing relevant propaganda videos. "I was interested in history when I was in middle school," he tried to explain his motives to the court. He said he "researched what was happening in the world." He came across the IS because the "appearance of the men" in the videos and their "way of speaking" attracted him, he testified: "I thought it was right. It was just cool for a teenager like me."

Initially, the defendant claimed he had "not watched any killing videos, only sermons." He had "always been against violence actually." He had only forwarded "religious texts that had no connection to the IS."

Teenager Confronted with Video Material and Files

This responsibility was impressively refuted by the presiding judge and the prosecutor by confronting the now 16-year-old with video material and files found on his phone and other data carriers, which were secured by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the WEGA during a house search. Among other things, the teenager had created a PDF file with his planned actions as an IS sympathizer. "Last step: DIE like a martyr," was written on it in not quite correct German.

Exactly one year ago - on June 30, 2024 - the 16-year-old, together with Luca K., was filmed by an acquaintance while taking the oath of allegiance to IS. While he posed with a soft air gun - a deceptively realistic-looking machine gun - Luca K. copied the pose of the Vienna attacker, who shot four people in the city center on November 2, 2020, by crossing both arms in front of his chest with a pistol in one hand and a knife in the other.

The 16-year-old was at least in the past quite taken with the terrorist attack in Vienna. In any case, he had saved an IS propaganda video in which "Just Terror in Vienna" was mentioned and it was emphasized at the end: "The threat continues."

"Can't hear this nonsense anymore"

Regarding the video with the oath of allegiance to IS, the 16-year-old remarked that he had recorded it together with Luca K. "just for fun." He had then added a soundtrack to it, "to have a sound." That he used a nasheed (Islamic chant, note) in which IS was glorified was more or less coincidental ("I didn't edit it"), he claimed, which the presiding judge did not believe ("I can't hear this nonsense anymore").

Luca K., who will be tried on July 25 in Wiener Neustadt for terrorist association and criminal organization, was escorted into the courtroom by several heavily armed officers of the Justice Guard Task Force (JEG) from pre-trial detention. The 18-year-old took a seat on the witness stand with handcuffs attached to a belly belt. He also claimed that the oath of allegiance was recorded on video "for fun": "It was pointless. Without meaning. As a teenager, you make a lot of videos and come up with stupid ideas."

(APA/Red)

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.