Vienna gunman: ISIS supporter who ‘fooled’ the system

VIENNA — The gunman responsible for an attack in Vienna which left four people dead on Monday night was a convicted supporter of the Islamic State (ISIS) group who the government says “fooled” official de-radicalization efforts. The 20-year-old, named as Kujtim Fejzulai, was shot dead by police and was armed with a shortened Kalashnikov, a handgun, a machete and a fake explosive belt. According to Interior Minister Karl Nehammer, Fejzulai had dual Macedonian-Austrian nationality and had already been convicted last year of attempting to travel to Syria and trying to join ISIS. After that conviction, Fejzulai, whose name suggests he is of ethnic Albanian origin, was sentenced to 22 months in prison but was released early on parole in December.
“The perpetrator managed to fool the justice system’s de-radicalisation programme, to fool the people in it, and to get an early release through this,” Nehammer said, suggesting that the attacker had made special efforts to deceive probation officers.
“Therefore there were no warning signs of his radicalisation,” he added.
Justice Minister Alma Zadic said that, in line with Austrian law, Fejzulai had been paroled in December 2019 after serving two-thirds of his sentence, but also put on three years’ probation. ”This enables us to continue to have an influence over the perpetrator beyond the term of their prison sentence,” she said, pointing out that this would not have been the case had he simply served his full sentence which normally would have expired in July 2020.
In Fejzulai’s case, he was required to report regularly to probation counsellors and the de-radicalisation programme DERAD, “which, according to our current knowledge, he did,” Zadic said.
After Monday’s shocking attack, Fejzulai’s home was raided and the evidence of his radical sympathies became clear. “It was clear that the attacker, despite all the outward signs of having integrated into society, did exactly the opposite,” the minister said. In a Facebook post, he posed with the Kalashnikov and the machete he would go on to use in the attack together with a caption saying he was “serving the sultanate” and other typical ISIS messages, Nehammer said. Source: ctvnews.ca