IS Propagandist in Vienna Convicted: 4 Years Imprisonment for Syrian Refugee

The accused was a recognized refugee in Austria. He had lived in Vienna for years without any trouble.

The Syrian fled to Austria in 2019 and subsequently applied for asylum, which was granted to him in 2020. Until his arrest at the end of May 2024, he was employed in a restaurant in Vienna-Landstraße. Outwardly, the well-behaved family man lived inconspicuously with his wife and six children in a rented apartment. "He has never committed an administrative offense. He hasn't even crossed the street at a red light," his defense lawyer Michael Drexler explained at the start of the trial in mid-February.

Quite surprisingly, Drexler and his client accepted the verdict, although the latter had previously vehemently protested his innocence. The prosecutor initially made no statement but signaled that she was also in agreement with the verdict. Officially, however, the court decision is not yet legally binding.

Prosecutor Presented New Evidence

The prosecutor, who had been particularly committed to this case, presented new evidence on the second day of the trial that further incriminated the accused. An informant had informed the German authorities in the summer of 2023 about a Facebook account on which posts were made in Syria in 2016 that were clearly attributable to IS. This lead was followed, and a profile with 22 image posts was found, in which - as the presiding jury eventually determined - the accused was seen in most cases with a deliberately staged IS reference.

"There is absolutely no doubt that the person is the accused," stated the presiding judge in the reasoning of the verdict. In the photos, for example, the man was seen with a raised AK-47 in his right hand and an IS flag in the background. The photos were accompanied by texts that praised IS and glorified the atrocities of the terrorist militia as well as martyrdom.

Expert Report Incriminated Accused in Vienna

The German State Criminal Police Office of Baden-Württemberg had made this evidence available to the domestic intelligence service, which reviewed, analyzed, and a few weeks ago forwarded it to the responsible prosecutor. She immediately expanded the charges. Confronted with this in the courtroom, the accused claimed, in line with his previous defense, that it was not him but another person depicted in the Facebook posts made in Syria in the spring of 2016. "None of these pictures are me," he assured, "I am not guilty. I hate IS. I have no connection to IS. I have nothing to do with this account."

The panel of judges saw it differently and relied "on our own perception and view," as the presiding judge explained, as well as an expert opinion that was obtained for an IS propaganda video already included in the original indictment. According to this facial biometric report, the probability that the man shouting into the camera in the video was the defendant was 83.48 percent. The expert assessed this in the trial as a very high probability. A similar value had only come up once before.

Clues from Germany initiated investigations

The trail of the man and his past was discovered last spring when the Directorate for State Protection and Intelligence (DSN) and other security agencies received clues from Germany indicating a possible involvement of the father of six in war crimes in his homeland. In the course of an investigation in Germany against several suspected IS members, the aforementioned IS propaganda video emerged, showing men armed with machine guns on a truck, who were evidently IS members.

The IS video, accompanied by nasheeds (Islamic chants, note), was played in the courtroom. Disturbing scenes were shown: tanks and military vehicles in action, grenade launchers being fired, battlefields, and mutilated corpses. At the end, a prisoner placed on the bed of a truck comes into view, who is grabbed by the head by an IS fighter and turned towards the camera. Then another IS man is seen shouting in Arabic: "This is the religion! The religion of Allah! We are victorious!" According to the court's findings, this is undoubtedly the 40-year-old who was registered at a Vienna address until his arrest.

Originally, the allegations against the 40-year-old went far beyond mere propaganda activities for IS. The prosecutor was convinced at the beginning of the trial that the 40-year-old was involved in IS combat operations and the persecution of Yazidis in Syria in 2014. He also allegedly conducted prisoner transports and made his business premises available for housing Yazidi prisoners. Furthermore, the man allegedly played IS videos on screens in his premises - initially a hair salon, later a mobile phone shop - and recruited youths and young men for IS. IS supporters who traveled from Europe to Syria as so-called foreign fighters were allegedly "received" by the defendant, as the prosecutor put it.

These charges could not be proven with the certainty required for a conviction and were therefore acquitted. Although three incriminating witnesses had made themselves available to the German law enforcement authorities, who attributed direct actions for IS to the defendant. Two were anonymized in the Austrian investigation, and one man was initially even willing to reveal his identity. However, these three witnesses were no longer available in the main court hearing. One of them has since returned to Syria, and the other two did not want to come to Vienna.

Court found "professional propaganda" was conducted

Although the most serious incriminated allegations were not adjudicated, the court deemed a four-year prison sentence appropriate for the IS propagandist, given a potential sentence of up to ten years. The 40-year-old had "massively supported" IS from the second half of 2014 to the end of 2016, the presiding judge stated in the reasoning of the verdict. He had conducted "professional propaganda," which went far beyond what usually ends up in court in this area.

(APA/Red)

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