Austria Closes Two Vienna Mosques Linked to ISIS-Inspired Attacker

At a press conference, Susanne Raab indicated that the "Office of Worship has been informed by the Ministry of the Interior that the killer regularly frequented two mosques in Vienna" since his release from prison. According to intelligence services, the attendance of these mosques would have "contributed to the radicalization of the assailant," she hammered, reports AFP.

Last Friday, searches were carried out in Osnabrück, Kassel and Pinneberg, in premises belonging to people who "are not suspected of being involved in the case," informed the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany. The same day, the police chief, Gerhard Pürstl, announced the suspension of the head of the anti-terrorism unit in Vienna, Erich Zwettler, at the latter’s request, "not to obstruct the investigation."

An investigation revealed that the young man, already known to the police and the justice system, was in contact with people under surveillance by the anti-terrorism services in Vienna. However, no action had been taken at the time, lamented Interior Minister Karl Nehammer, who sees it as serious and "unacceptable errors", thus giving reason to some opponents who indicated that the attack, the first of this magnitude in Austria, could have been avoided.

To recall, the assailant, a 20-year-old Austro-Macedonian, author of the attack that left four dead and 22 injured on Monday evening in a popular district of Vienna, had been shot dead by the police. In April 2019, he was convicted of attempting to join IS fighters in Syria. Later, in December 2019, he was released early, the same source pointed out.