TerrorismVideo of the Vienna Terrorist Attack Confirms that the Attacker Had No Help on the Scene

The investigation into the terrorist attack in Vienna is still in full swing, said Interior Minister Karl Nehammer at a Wednesday press conference. Nehammer said that fourteen people were arrested – the arrested individuals are between 18 and 28 years of age; all have come to Austria as migrants; and a few of them do not have an Austrian citizenship.

The Vienna Police Director Gerhard Pürstl added that some had dual citizenships, and named Bangladesh, Macedonia, Turkey, and the Russian Federation.

The perpetrator was born and raised on northern Macedonia.

The interior minister also said police experts viewing more than 20,000 videos — more than a terabyte of data — concluded that the attacker acted alone.

Franz Ruf, Director General for Public Security, rvealed more details about the perpetrator: On 22 August 2018 he wanted to leave for Afghanistan, but did not have a visa. On 1 September 2018 he traveled to Turkey and wanted to go to Syria. In Turkey he was detained until 9 January 2019 and returned to Austria on 10 January. Upon his return, he was arrested and sentenced.

He served two-thirds of his sentence, and was conditionally released in December 2019 instead of this July 2020.

The Derad Association, a Vienna-based non-profit which helps criminals released from jail and which looked after the Vienna attacker, has rejected criticism from Nehammer and Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz that the perpetrator gained an early release because of pressure from the association, and that the association had failed to monitor the attacker after he was released. The association director noted that because of several court rulings, the association was limited in its ability to monitor former inmates.

Courts rued, for example, that only the federal police, known as the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, could apply for warrants to tap the phones of individuals. Moreover, owing to privacy concerns, the federal policy is prohibited from sharing certain information with associations such as Derad.

Derad noted that even if the perpetrator had been released in July 2020 rather than December 2019, he could still have committed the crime in November.

Also, Derad said, he was not released early because he was considered to have been deradicalized – but because, as a first-time offender, he was entitled to be released in December. But since he was released early, he had to comply with restrictions, supervised by Derad. Had he been released after serving his full sentence, the law would not have allowed for restrictions to be imposed on him.