The trial of six alleged supporters of the terrorist attack in Vienna on November 2, 2020 began with contradictory statements about the ideological orientation of the accused. "Every single one of the accused is a supporter" of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS), said the prosecutor on Tuesday in the Vienna district court. Defense attorneys denied that their clients knew of and endorsed the assassin's extremist plans.

The 20-year-old perpetrator was shot by the police on the night of the crime on November 2, 2020. The IS sympathizer killed four people, including a German student, in a busy nightlife district in central Vienna. 23 people were injured, including some Germans.

From the point of view of the public prosecutor, this "sneaky, even bestial" attack was directly supported by the accused. Individually and in various combinations, the men between the ages of 22 and 32 would have helped buy an assault rifle, a handgun and ammunition, select the target for the attack and psychologically strengthen the assassin shortly before the crime. The accused are accused, among other things, of involvement in terrorist murder. Depending on their age, they face a maximum sentence of 20 years or life imprisonment.

The six young men pleaded not guilty to this central charge. However, two of them pleaded guilty to helping to obtain the weapons illegally. "It's nothing sympathetic, but the arms dealer is not the murderer," emphasized the lawyer representing one of the partial confessors.

Five men were known to the Office for the Protection of the Constitution for a long time

According to the prosecutor, among other things, DNA traces and mobile phone location data speak for the guilt of the six young men. She reported that not only the perpetrator, but also five of the men in the dock were known to the Austrian Office for the Protection of the Constitution for years before the attack as part of the radical Islamist scene in Vienna. The defenders, on the other hand, criticized the fact that so far only various indications but no tangible evidence had been presented. They also pointed to the investigation gaps before the fact.

A commission of inquiry from the Ministry of the Interior recorded in a report last year that the police and judiciary did not take timely action against the perpetrator, who had previously been convicted - although investigators knew that the man wanted to buy military ammunition in Slovakia. As a consequence of the mistakes made by the authorities, the Austrian state security system was reformed and de-radicalization measures in prisons improved.

After the start, the process will not be continued until December. The verdicts are due in early February.