Austria government approves range of anti-terrorism measures
Austria’s government has approved a wide range of anti-terrorism measures, days after a sympathizer of the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group went on a shooting rampage in the heart of the capital, Vienna, killing four people and wounding nearly two dozen others.
The terrorist attack occurred on November 2, when 20-year-old Kujtim Fejzulai, a dual citizen of Austria and North Macedonia, moved through Vienna’s inner city and began shooting at passers-by for nine minutes until he was shot dead by police.
The assailant, who had been sentenced to 22 months in jail in April 2019 for attempting to travel to Syria to join Daesh but been released in December last year, killed four people and wounded 22 others during the shooting spree.
On Wednesday, the Austrian government approved anti-terrorism measures, including the ability to give life sentences to individuals convicted of terror offenses, placing people convicted of terror-related offenses under electronic surveillance upon release, and criminalizing extremist acts.
According to Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, the government also intends to facilitate the process of closing associations believed to be playing a role in the “radicalization” of individuals and to enable the public to report potential violent activities on an online platform.
The measures, which will be brought before the Austrian parliament for a vote next month, also include the preventive detention of individuals convicted of terror offenses.
Kurz said that even if those individuals had served their sentences for their crimes but were not yet considered as being completely de-radicalized, “we will make it possible to lock those people up in order to protect the public.”
The measures, if approved by the parliament, will also enable the government to strip dual citizens convicted of terrorism offenses of their Austrian citizenship.
On Monday, some 1,000 Austrian police and intelligence service officers reportedly raided houses, businesses, and associations purportedly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood movement and the Palestinian resistance movement of Hamas.
Austrian prosecutors stressed that those raids were not connected to the shooting spree last week.
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