Vienna attack: life sentence legally binding for arms dealers

“Without the weapons, the crime that left four people dead and many more injured and traumatized would not have been possible,” the judge explained the verdict. The Higher Regional Court also dismissed an appeal regarding the level of rewards for private participants.

Involvement in multiple murders
Nearly a year ago, the Chechen was found guilty by a jury at the Vienna Regional Court of involvement in several murders and crimes under the Weapons Act and the War Materials Act, and sentenced to the maximum penalty.

Firearms and ammunition available
He had supplied the killer with the firearms and ammunition used in the attack on November 2, 2020 – the associated guilty verdict was fully upheld by the Supreme Court (OGH) in December. In the 33-year-old’s case, the first court – unlike the other five defendants – did not assume that he belonged to the radical Islamist-terrorist militia ‘Islamic State’ (IS), and therefore he was not part of a terrorist organization in the eyes of the judicial organization involved.

Court not convinced
The court was not convinced by the argument of his lawyer, Manfred Arbacher-Stöger, that his client had played only ‘a very minor role’. He found that the suspect had imposed the maximum sentence only ‘for the public’. ‘If the murderer had not been dead but had been in the dock, it is questionable whether the others would have been convicted at all.’ The lawyer also demanded that his client’s partial confession ‘must be worth something’, otherwise “Everyone sits down and lies” could happen in the future.

Relevant criminal record
The convicted man himself appeared calm and rather taciturn during the appeal hearing. “It wasn’t all like that,” he said after the verdict from February last year was presented to him again. A relevant previous conviction also had an aggravating effect on the sentence. “We are dealing here with a weapon that was built for war purposes. “Anyone who passes on such a weapon expects people to be killed with it,” the judge explained the verdict. All these circumstances justify the imposition of the maximum sentence.

This is surprising since the 32-year-old Slovenian who allegedly sold the weapons to the later attacker received a nine-month suspended prison sentence in May 2023. However, the trial only involved the transfer of a Tokarev pistol and 35 rounds of ammunition. The killer is said to have also received the gun from the Slovenian. However, the Zastava M70 – a model manufactured in the former Yugoslavia and based on the technology of the AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifle – was no longer the subject of the trial this spring due to an error by the Vienna Public Prosecutor’s Office.

Prosecutor’s mistake
In 2021, the Public Prosecution Service wrongly closed a case involving the Slovenian prematurely. He could therefore no longer be held responsible for the delivery of the Zastava in June 2020 – a possible violation of the War Material Act.

In addition to the 33-year-old’s appeal, the three-judge panel of the Higher Regional Court also rejected the appeal against the court’s initial awards by private parties to the relatives of the four people who were killed or injured in the attack. the attacker. In addition to the Chechens, this also involved a suspected IS supporter who was also sentenced to life imprisonment for his involvement in the attack, but did not appear in person.