“Will kill you” – Bursch threatened Van der Bellen & Nehammer with death

The 18-year-old defendant has long disagreed with the policies of the Greens and the ÖVP. On May 21, the unemployed man finally committed a crime: drunk, he wrote the following direct message to Chancellor Karl Nehammer on his mobile phone: “I want to kill you. With your government, I can no longer do this.” As soon as he sent the message, the frustrated man pressed the keys again and also threatened Federal President Alexander Van der Bellen via a direct message: “I’ll kill you!”

When the police arrived at the author’s doorstep that same day, he was not at home, but had an appointment with the employment agency. There, the 18-year-old was eventually arrested and taken to the police station in handcuffs, where he was interrogated for two hours.

“Would never commit murder”
During his interrogation, he initially only confessed to the message to Nehammer. However, that changed on Friday during the trial, where he finally admitted that he was also the author of the death threat to Van der Bellen. To apologize, he brought up the alcoholism at the time and added: “I obviously didn’t mean the death threats seriously. I would never commit murder.” In this respect, he regrets what he did.

Judge Sabrina Tagwercher found the suspect guilty of dangerous threats and imposed an unconditional fine of 800 euros. Because he eventually confessed to the two crimes, she decided not to revoke a five-month prison sentence imposed two years ago, but in return extended his probation from three to five years.