“Wanted to be famous” – imprisonment for the leader of the Linz Halloween riot

After the night of shame with scenes like from a crisis area at the end of October in the Upper Austrian state capital, the country was in a state of shock. Violent youths had fought street fights with the police. In the end, 123 mostly young people with a migration background were reported, another six were criminally liable because they were still children or under the age of 14.

“I wanted to be famous with the video”
Its own ten-member special committee “Soko Halloween” has been investigating for almost two months now. Now the bang effect: the three leaders of the riot were investigated by the detectives and the prosecutor’s office of Linz.

Suspect 1: He is the mastermind and “video producer” of the infamous TikTok call for violence “Tomorrow Linz becomes Athena”. A French Netflix film of the same name is about a high-rise complex in a Parisian suburb that is besieged by security forces. Motive of the 17-year-old North Macedonian from a town of 1,700 inhabitants in the district of Perg (Upper Austria), who confessed and freely reported: “I wanted to be famous.” Mobile phones were seized during a raid.

Suspect 2: A 21-year-old Syrian asylum seeker (he cannot be deported) from Linz. He did not confess, would have verbally and with hand gestures incited the rioters to riot. During the interrogation, the young man sneered: “The police also liked it” – pre-trial detention!

Suspect 3: Also behind bars is a previously convicted unemployed Spaniard. He threw stones and fireworks at officers. The 19-year-old violent criminal was already prepared for a New Year’s riot: 162 rockets with the highest danger level 4 were seized during a house search.