“The background is likely to be current trials and official actions by the police against people who can be assigned to the Islamist scene,” said the Ministry of the Interior.
The Ukraine conflict was also addressed in threatening letters and open anti-Semitism was expressed. “Bombs in revenge for their help to Ukraine / they kill our brothers from Chechnya,” it read literally. And further: “bombs will go off at 9> o’clock today”. The police took appropriate “security measures”, officers who were experts in explosives were on duty. Initial searches of the affected buildings were negative.
“The Directorate for State Security and Intelligence has started investigations,” reported Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP). “The threat posed by Islamist terrorism is currently the focus of the work of the state security authorities and is being fought primarily in close cooperation with our European partners.” Karner emphasized that action would be taken “with all consistency and all necessary means”, the rule of law should not be intimidated.
The third trial of four suspected jihadists began on Monday in the Graz Criminal Court. A preacher is accused of causing families to go to Syria and join the terrorist organization “Islamic State” (IS). The verdict in this case has already been partially overturned twice, this time primarily the charge of “anti-state connection” has to be tried again.
