08. 04. 09. - 15:00

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08. 04. 09. - 15:00

Austrian Al-Qaeda cell watched for 3 years

The Austrian public prosecutor’s office has reportedly been investigating an Austrian cell of worldwide terror network Al-Qaeda for three years.

The magazine News will have a report about that in its edition that goes on sale tomorrow (Thurs) based on documents allegedly in the possession of the Office for Protection of the Constitution and the Fight against Terrorism (BVT).

The magazine claims US officials informed their Austrian counterparts at the end of 2005 that Austrian citizen Abdulrahmen H., born in Mödling, Lower Austria in 1983, and four others had trained as para-militaries at an Al-Qaeda camp in Pakistan from August to October 2005.

News said Abdulrahmen, the head of the Austrian Al-Qaeda cell, had been killed along the Afghan-Pakistani border and another cell member had died in Afghanistan. The magazine added three other cell members were abroad, one in prison in Tunisia.

News also reported BVT investigators had questioned a former Al-Qaeda member in October 2007 in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina about the training of Austrian cell members at Al-Qaeda camps.

The magazine added that, according to the charge against German terror suspect Aleem Nasir, Abdulrahman H. had trained at explosives expert Nasir’s "Mir Ali" camp in Pakistan.

BVT videotaped Nasir in February 2007 in Vienna as he was giving Abdulrahman H.’s mother something from her son, News said.

The Austrian Al-Qaeda cell apparently did not include Mohamed Mahmoud. His wife and he were sentenced to a combined five years in prison in February for online terror threats against targets in Germany and Austria.

Mahmoud, then 23, was found guilty of involvement in a March 2007 video threatening Austria and Germany with attacks if they did not withdraw military personnel from Afghanistan. The video also endorsed jihad and called for attacks during the Euro 2008 football championships. He was sentenced to four years in prison.

His 22-year-old wife, identified as Mona S., was convicted of helping him, mostly by translating texts. She was sentenced to 22 months in prison. She was freed on 8 October 2008 after almost 14 months’ detention and may remain free.

The verdict by a Vienna court in February was the same as one handed down in March 2008. Austria's High Court (OGH) had ordered a retrial at the end of August last year. Court spokesman Kurt Kirchbacher said at the time the court had ordered a retrial because the questions asked during the first proceedings had been "too abstract."

The court also ruled both husband and wife had participated in a terrorist network and that Mahmoud, through his involvement in the online video, had pursued al-Qaeda’s goals.

Despite the possible presence of an Al-Qaeda cell in Austria, the interior ministry does not believe Al-Qaeda’s recent call for attacks on Western European cities poses a concrete threat to Austria.

Interior ministry spokesman Rudolf Gollia said Austrian authorities were in contact with colleagues in other countries to discuss Al-Qaeda’s most-recent call for terrorist attacks on the West.

The US SITE Intelligence Group Monitoring Service, a for-profit firm that monitors the internet for intelligence on terrorist groups, had detected an Al-Qaeda video calling for attacks on Western European cities in response to Israel’s attack on the Gaza Strip.

The video mentioned the USA and the UK as targets of choice.

The interior ministry has not changed its outlook since last October, when it said there was "no noticeable, precise danger" of terrorist attacks against Austria.

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