SHARE
COPY LINK

POLICE

Families of Vienna terror attack victims sue Austrian government

The families of two of the victims of November's jihadist attack in Vienna city centre are suing the Austrian state for compensation because of official failings, their lawyers said Tuesday.

Families of Vienna terror attack victims sue Austrian government
A woman lays a flower at a memorial to the victims of the Vienna terror attack at the Austrian embassy in Berlin. Photo: OMER MESSINGER / AFP

Convicted Islamic State sympathiser Kujtim Fejzulai killed four people before being shot dead by police in the first major attack in Austria for decades and the first blamed on a jihadist.

One lawsuit on behalf of the mother of a 24-year-old German student shot dead by the attacker is being brought because “the Austrian authorities didn't do everything in their power to prevent such an attack,” lawyer Norbert Wess told AFP.

An officially commissioned, independent report into security failures in the run-up to the attack recently found that there were several missed opportunities to act on warning signs about Fejzulai's conduct.

ANALYSIS: Vienna terror attack was 'only a matter of time'

The victim's family has been offered a total of 5,800 euros ($7,025) in compensation and help with funeral costs, but that amount doesn't even come close to covering the cost of transporting the body to Germany, Wess says.

In addition the text of the lawsuit says that the victim's mother “has had to be treated for depression… and take daily medication”, as well as not being fit for work.

The lawsuit demands a total of over 104,000 euros to reflect the trauma the family has suffered and the high funeral costs. In addition the family felt themselves insensitively treated by the Austrian authorities in the wake of the attack.

In order to receive compensation her sister had to “prove, through photos and similar means, that there was a close emotional bond with the victim”.

While this is the established legal procedure, Wess says authorities could possibly have taken “a more accommodating approach… in such an obviously tragic case”.

Having to provide proof of their relationship “put a great strain on the victim's sister,” he said.

The lawyer for the parents of a second, 21-year-old Austrian victim also confirmed to AFP they were filing a lawsuit demanding compensation on similar grounds.

“We will demand compensation for the grief, shock and for the funeral costs,” Mathias Burger told AFP.

Referring to the failure to spot warning signs about Fejzulai,Burger said there had been “grave neglect on the part of the authorities which justifies a public liability lawsuit”.

He said the claim would be for 30,000 euros for each parent, plus the costs of the funeral and extra compensation for the victim's mother whom Burger described as “heavily traumatised”.

“We hope to settle this without going to trial,” he added.

A third lawsuit claiming official liability for failing to prevent the attack is being brought as well on behalf of several of those injured, also demanding more generous compensation.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.

TERRORISM

Austrian investigators seize devices at Munich shooter’s home

Investigators seized electronic devices at the home of a young Austrian who fired shots near Israel's Munich consulate, but found no weapons or Islamic State group propaganda material, authorities said Friday.

Austrian investigators seize devices at Munich shooter's home

German police shot dead the 18-year-old man on Thursday when he fired a vintage rifle at them near the diplomatic building.

They said they were treating it as a “terrorist attack”, apparently timed to coincide with the anniversary of the killings of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympic Games.

Authorities raided the gunman’s home in the Salzburg region, seizing electronic data carriers, Austria’s top security chief Franz Ruf told a press conference in Vienna on Friday.

READ ALSO: Munich Israeli consulate gunman was ‘Austrian national known to authorities’

During the raid, “no weapons or IS propaganda” material were found, Ruf added.

Despite being subject to a ban on owning and carrying weapons, the man managed to purchase a vintage carbine rifle fitted with a bayonet with around “fifty rounds of ammunition” for 400 euros ($445) the day before the attack, Ruf said.

He opened fire at around 9:00 am (0700 GMT) near the Israeli consulate, sparking a mobilisation of about 500 police in downtown Munich.

At a separate press conference in Munich, prosecutor Gabriele Tilmann said investigators were combing through the gunman’s electronic data but had yet to find conclusive evidence of his motive.

But the “working hypothesis” was that “the perpetrator acted out of Islamist or anti-Semitic motivation”, she told reporters.

Austrian police said on Thursday that the gunman, who had Bosnian roots, had previously been investigated on suspicion of links to terrorism.

Investigators last year found three videos he had recorded in 2021, showing scenes from a computer game “with Islamist content”, prosecutors said in a statement.

In one of them the suspect had used an avatar with a flag of the “al-Nusra Front”, a jihadist group active in Syria, said Ruf.

But the investigation was dropped in 2023 as there were no indications that he was active in “radical” circles, prosecutors said.

“The mere playing of a computer game or the re-enactment of violent Islamist scenes was not sufficient to prove intent to commit the offence,” they added.

SHOW COMMENTS