An 18-year-old Bangladeshi man was sentenced to six months in prison in Austria for "
terrorist association
" after encouraging the perpetrator of the November 2, 2020 attack in Vienna to carry out jihad, the court announced on Monday (December 21st).
To read also: "Jihadist terrorism subsists in Syria and Iraq and still threatens France"
"
He posted jihadist propaganda messages from March 2018 and was arrested a week after the attack on November 2,
" said the vice-president of the Vienna Regional Criminal Court, Christina Salzborn.
That evening, an armed man sowed terror in the streets of the Austrian capital and killed four people at close range before being shot by police, the first attack on a country hitherto untouched by jihadist attacks.
The young man sentenced Monday, arrived in Austria in 2013 and a minor during the attack, admitted the facts and gave up appealing his sentence, six months in prison and 18 months suspended, with a probationary period of three years.
He was arrested along with 17 other people after the November 2 attack.
During his interrogation, the 18-year-old Bangladeshi confessed to having congratulated, after March 2018, the future killer for his intention to join the Islamic State organization in Syria, and to have shared with him jihadist propaganda material.
Even if he had met him one last time in July, he however claimed to have known nothing of his plan to act in Austria, and assured that he had not participated.
Kujtim Fejzulai, the perpetrator of the Vienna bombing, a 20-year-old Austro-Macedonian claiming to be ISIS, had attempted to reach Syria in 2018, but was arrested in Turkey and extradited to Austria.
He was then sentenced to prison, but was granted early parole.
“
I was surprised that he got out so quickly,
” the convict told the hearing.
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