| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Austrian Schoolboy in Court in 'IS Bomb Plot' Case |
| 2015-05-18 |
| [AnNahar] An Austrian teenager suspected of having links with the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allaharound with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not reallyMoslems.... group is to appear in court Tuesday accused of planning to bomb a Vienna train station when he was just 14. Now aged 15, the boy who comes from a Turkish background, is accused of "participating in a terrorist group." His case will be heard at a Sankt-Polten court, west of the capital. Arrested at school in October 2014, police said the boy has admitted he was trying to make a bomb, and that he was planning to plant it at one of Vienna's main stations. Investigators said they found IS propaganda images on his computer, phone and video game console. Prosecutors said he was "actively" seeking to make a bomb, but his lawyer Rudolf Mayer told AFP he had only been "playing with the idea." The teenager has also admitted he wanted to travel to Syria to join the IS' ranks. He broke his bail conditions and tried to flee in January with a 12-year-old friend, with both apparently trying to reach the war-torn country. Because of his age, the maximum sentence he could face is five years in prison. According to unconfirmed press reports, IS had promised the teenager 25,000 euros ($28,000) to commit the Vienna attack. Vienna says at least 200 people from Austria, including women and kiddies, have traveled to Syria and Iraq, where the IS controls vast swathes of territory and commits horrific abuses. Some 70 suspects have since returned to the country, and several of them are in jug pending judgment. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 The trial has been postponed for a week, according to An Nahar: A 15-year-old Austrian schoolboy with alleged ties to Islamist extremists and accused of intending to launch a bomb attack in Vienna last year will be tried on May 26, officials said Monday. Mertkan G. was arrested in October 2014 when he was 14 and allegedly had contacts with supporters of the jihadist group Islamic State and al-Qaida, a court in his hometown Sankt-Poelten where he will be tried said. "In addition he is suspected of obtaining instructions on how to make an explosive device from an al-Qaida website... in order to carry out an attack in Vienna," the court in eastern Austria said. According to the charge sheet, the teenager, who immigrated from Turkey in 2007, wanted to carry out the attack before traveling to join "holy war" in Syria and was in contact with IS recruiters in Vienna. Police had said at the time of the arrest that he made "concrete inquiries about buying ingredients" for a bomb and "planned to explode the devices in public places, such as the Vienna Westbahnhof," a major train station. His lawyer Rudolf Mayer told AFP that his client had only been "playing with the idea" of making a bomb. Previously officials had said that the trial would take place on May 19. He has been in custody since January after breaking the terms of his parole. He faces up to five years in prison if convicted. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2015-05-18 22:44 |