Vienna, St. Pölten, Graz – Five bomb threats due to the Islamist process

The bomb threats were emailed to courts, the Israeli religious community and the magistrate in Vienna. The hearing in Graz was interrupted, the room cleared and searched by a special team, similar scenes took place in St. Pölten.

First Searches of the affected buildings were negative, and several police security measures were still in place, according to emergency services.

Ministry confirms a total of five threats
“It can be confirmed that in the morning hours of June 27, 2022, written threats were received against courts in Vienna, Graz and St. Pölten, as well as at the IKG Vienna and the Vienna MA 56 (school department),” says a first statement from the ministry. of the Interior. The State Security and Intelligence Directorate (DSN) is currently conducting a full investigation.

The court in Graz suspects that the perpetrators may be sympathizers of the accused pastor. In addition to judicial actions, the background can also be official police actions against people who “can be assigned to the Islamist scene”.

DSN director Omar Haijawi-Pirchner had only recently pointed to the renewed threat of terrorism in Austria: during the pandemic, Islamists had shifted their activities to the internet, radicalization had increased dramatically: “And we are now seeing the effects of this in real life again. life after the pandemic, or in an intermediate phase of the pandemic, acutely felt again.

The ministry stressed that the State Security and Intelligence Directorate had for some time increased the focus of its observations of the Islamist scene. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP): “The threat of Islamist terrorism is currently central to the work of state security authorities and is mainly combated in close cooperation with our European partners. We will act against this consistently and by all means, because the rule of law must not be intimidated.”