Today, the Vienna Criminal Court is expected to pronounce verdicts on the new trial ordered by the Austrian Supreme Court against three accomplices of the bomber who killed four people and wounded others in the center of Vienna on November 2, 2020, the Austrian news agency APA reported. The trial will focus mainly on whether the defendants were also members of a terrorist organization. All three had already been found guilty of aiding and abetting murder and received lengthy prison terms.
After a nearly 20-day trial in February last year, the three youths were sentenced to 19 years, 20 years and life in prison respectively for variously supporting the killer in the run-up to the attack. These judgments are final. At today’s retrial, all three pleaded not guilty.
The main question is whether they were part of the terrorist organization “Islamic State”. Under heightened security, today’s trial began in a heated atmosphere. One of the accused accused the investigating authorities of making mistakes and stated that “The Directorate of State Security and Intelligence apparently trying to connect me to something here” but “nothing found”. Judge Andreas Hautz disagreed and said he would not grant a grandstand for “inflating”.
The defendant’s defense attorney, Elmar Kresbach, also had the judge shake his head. Kresbach wanted to file a motion for evidence at the outset, but it was denied. The lawyer was later given the opportunity to do so, but all offers to provide evidence – such as questioning the accused’s father or an expert witness – were rejected.
The retrial was necessary because the Austrian Supreme Court overturned the convictions due to errors in the legal instructions given to the jury and insufficiently specific sentence wording. As a result, the length of the sentences may be changed, APA points out.
In February 2023, a 23-year-old man was sentenced to 19 years in prison for purchasing military equipment and contacting an intermediary for its purchase, BTA writes. A 25-year-old man was sentenced to 20 years in prison, who, knowing about the intentions of the bomber, supported him from May 2020 until the day of the attack, helping to choose a target and providing the necessary documents for escape. The 29-year-old, who encouraged the attacker to carry out the attack until the very day of the attack and prepared the necessary weapons in the attacker’s apartment, received a life sentence.
