New trial solved – Lorenz K. again made terror plans in prison

This was confirmed by the spokesperson of the Graz Public Prosecutor, Hansjörg Bacher. Charges against the now 24-year-old and a co-defendant inmate — the two met in Graz-Karlau prison — are already final, Bacher said: “A date for the grand hearing has not yet been announced.”

abundance of terrorist crimes
As things stand, the hearing will take place at the Graz Regional Criminal Court. Lorenz K. is accused of a large number of terrorist crimes: attempted murder, attempted endangerment with explosives, as well as the crimes of the terrorist organization and the criminal organization.

If the conviction is in line with the charges, the 24-year-old, whose regular sentence was due to end on October 20, 2026, taking into account pre-trial detention and following a new conviction for serious property damage in prison, would face ten to twenty years or even life imprisonment.

Since the summer of 2020, the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Graz has been investigating Lorenz K., who had been in prison since the beginning of 2017 and who would have developed his renewed terrorist activities in Stein Prison from November 2019 and after his transfer to Graz from January 2020 in Karlau Penitentiary. The 24-year-old denies that he rolled out terror plans in his cells using illegally obtained mobile phones.

Lorenz K. enjoys a kind of cult status
Lorenz K. enjoys a kind of cult status among IS sympathizers, and not only in Austria, but at least in the entire German-speaking world. Although he has been in prison for years, the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) continues to classify him as a supposedly dangerous person. He is said to have not only established and maintained direct contact with other convicted terrorists in prison, but also familiarized fellow prisoners with the ideas of IS and encouraged them in their attitude.

As a 17-year-old, Lorenz K. had planned a bomb attack on the German American troop base in Ramstein for radical Islamist motives. He also wanted to incite a then 12-year-old to commit a suicide bombing at Christmas. market in Ludwigshafen, Germany, with a homemade explosive device in late November 2016. Although he was sentenced to nine years in prison by the Vienna Regional Criminal Court, he apparently has not given up his belief in IS. According to the current indictment of the Graz public prosecutor’s office, he was not only active as an IS propagandist via Instagram; several dozen followers had subscribed to him.

ISIS execution videos forwarded
At the same time, Lorenz K. communicated with another IS supporter, to whom he sent IS execution videos, among other things, and from whom he also demanded a suicide bombing. “The ummah (community) needs you elsewhere. You must become a shahid (martyr, nut),” Lorenz K. told his interlocutor. He also forwarded a photo of a bomb to Joel P., noting that the “package” contained a tube of nails and a timer. my bomb So that’s why I’m here (meaning: in custody, take note)”.

At the end of July 2020, Lorenz K. downloaded on his mobile phone in his cell an IS-produced video, which shows, among other things, how an IS hostage is killed, a bomb is made and an explosive device is detonated. He sent this file to an unknown person who has not yet been traced. Nevertheless, the Public Prosecution Service also qualifies this as attempted murder.

It is striking that Lorenz K. almost always had a mobile phone in the various prisons in which he was housed – he is currently in Sonnberg prison – while this is actually prohibited. The Ministry of Justice stated on Thursday: “Security and control measures are constantly being implemented in Austrian prisons. The cells of the detainees in particular are unexpectedly searched at irregular times. In order to prevent the smuggling of mobile phones, the prisoners are mainly checked in the context of their external contacts.”