Vienna Trial – Six months for approving the Hamas attack

He responded to Hamas’ terrorist attack on Israel on October 7, 2023 with a questionable video. The 56-year-old was found not guilty for publishing the video of a speech he gave on Stephansplatz on the morning of October 7 and which he made publicly available on October 9 on his homepage and on his YouTube channel.

Due to absenteeism
He was convicted because the video was available until the end and was not deleted. With this omission, judge Stefan Apostol ruled that, as the media owner of his website and his YouTube channel, he was guilty of approving terrorist crimes. At the same time, he ordered the 56-year-old to delete the video in accordance with a provision of the media law.

Fear of disruption
The judgment is not final. Lawyer Astrid Wagner asked for time to think about it, but the prosecutor, who had demanded a “very, very strict sentence” with a prison sentence of up to two years, initially made no statement. Security measures had been tightened before the trial. The man’s sympathizers had signed up and held a solidarity demonstration in front of the Gray House, and there were fears the proceedings would be disrupted.

Photography and film ban
The trial was therefore moved to another room at short notice and a photography and film ban was issued, which affected not only the hearing room, but also the entire building on the third floor. However, everything remained quiet at the hearing itself, although the majority of the 56-year-old’s supporters were unable to attend due to a lack of sufficient seats.

A few hours after Hamas’s attack on Israel, the defendant released a video under the title “Long live the heroic uprising of the Palestinian people!” in which he described the events in Israel as an “unprecedented event recorded by the Palestinian liberation fighters. ” said: “This is a massive and historic attack. We (…) know that this is a just war by the Palestinians. This is a just war against the continued occupation and against the Israelis’ oppression of the Palestinian people.” The man whom insiders have attributed for years to so-called left-wing anti-Semitism, spoke in his speech, delivered in English: of a “struggle of the Palestinian people against the Zionist state” and a “just war” that the RCIT supports “unconditionally” : “We declare victory to the Palestinian resistance, down with the Zionist state.”

When asked why he only took the video offline at the end, the defendant noted: “I don’t delete things about myself. I stand by what I do and say.” Ultimately, that was the only reason he was convicted. In his verdict, the judge also rejected the suspect’s statement that it was a “political trial.” “If you had taken the video offline at some point, you would have been acquitted,” the judge noted.

Hamas terrorist attack approved
In the eyes of the prosecution, the defendant had approved Hamas’s terrorist attack against the Israeli state and its people, as well as its infrastructure, in a medium that was accessible to many people – and in a way that was likely to reduce the risk. were committed with a view to causing one or more terrorist crimes, as stated in the criminal complaint. The 56-year-old saw the pre-trial indictment as an “attempt to silence the voices of solidarity with Palestine.” At the same time, he announced: “But whatever the outcome of this case – we refuse to remain silent! We will continue to speak the truth and support Palestine and all oppressed peoples!”