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Wednesday, January 18, 2023

Muslim Brotherhood in Austria (5): Charges Thrown out in Operation Luxor




On November 9, 2020, Austrian police conducted a series of raids  (Operation Luxor) all over the country in a crackdown on suspected members of the Austrian-based Muslim Brotherhood. The raids took place one week after a deadly terrorist attack carried out in Vienna even though the raids had already been in the planning long before the Vienna attack.

Now it seems that the prosecution case is unraveling in the courts. A series of judicial defeats have brought severe criticism to the prosecution team as well as the current chancellor Karl Nehammer, who was interior minister at the time of the raids.

The Middle East Forum has an article on the case this week by Soeren Kern, which can be accessed here.

The below article from Der Standard (Austria) is translated by Fousesquawk. This is the 5th such article focused on the Muslim Brotherhood in Austria.

 https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000142309461/verfahren-gegen-oesterreichs-angeblichen-muslimbrueder-anfuehrer-eingestellt

Operation Luxor

Proceedings against Austria's alleged Muslim Brotherhood leader dropped

In the operational search warrant, he was considered "the leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Austria". More than two years later, the investigations against A.S. have been thrown out.

Jan Michael Marchart

January 6, 2023 at 10:00

On November 9, 2020, when hundreds of heavily-armed police officers stormed rows of apartments all over Austria, A.S. was surely the most prominent among the suspects. In the almost 200-page thick order for the raids in the so-called Operation Luxor against suspected members of the Muslim Brotherhood and the alleged leader of the Hamas terrorists, A.S. was considered the leader-literally as the "leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Austria". That was what the formerly anonymous informant whispered to investigators.

More than two years later, these accusations lie in ruins. The investigations of the Graz State Prosecutor's Office against A.S.- among others, terrorist association, terror finance, and money laundering- have been dropped. That comes from a ruling by the Higher State Court in Graz, which Der Standard has accessed. Once again, (lack of evidence). Up to now, more than 20 proceedings have been dropped-in all, almost 100 accused. "The rule of law has proven its worth," now says the lawyer of A.S., Andreas Rust.

The ruling also brings Chancellor Karl Nehammer (Austrian Peoples' Party) under pressure. The State Prosecutor's Office, indeed, is in charge of Operation Luxor. But as the Turkish Interior minister tried to make political capital of, Nehammer put himself in the media spotlight next to (armed) Cobra officers. After the investigative breakdowns surrounding the jihadist terror attack of November 2, Nehammer was criticized. Not the least of which, because of the long-planned Operation Luxor raids, an interview* with the later terrorist, K.F. ( Kujtim Fejzulai)  was postponed. 

"Narratives inhibited as much as possible"

In its decision, the Higher State Court is now systematically picking the investigators' work apart. Essential information in Operation Luxor goes back to an anonymous informant, who is himself accused. According to the files, he described the alleged leading circle of the Muslim Brotherhood in Austria to intelligence services in June 2020. And at its top, accordingly, was A.S.

For the court, it was "not clear" How the anonymous informant could know all this. "Because the foundation for any of his knowledge- sensory perception, assumption- was....not clarified, the decision states. On the contrary.  Since access to Operation Luxor was far off in the future at that time, the investigators asked their informant no questions as to how he himself came into contact with the Muslim Brotherhood.  That was recorded by the Intelligence service itself in an internal report. And: "Narratives from him on this topic were inhibited as much as possible."

Accordingly, the court also maintains that it is not clear where the informant got his information from or who gave it to him. In addition, based on his own statements (" I can't say exactly (because) when I came to Austria, I was told that by several people within the Muslim community."), it appears that some of his statements could be merely hearsay. It is (curious) also that the State Prosecutor's Office compromised their informant a year ago in their own files. A short time later, he was involved in a fight. 

Caption below photo:  Chancellor Karl Nehammer staged Operation Luxor on November 9, 2020, as stated publicly by the Turkish interior minister.

Three other informants who named A.S. as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood or placed him indirectly with the Brotherhood were not taken seriously by the court. The statements of one prosecution witness consisted "mostly of assessments", those of another "almost exclusively of assessments and conclusions," and the statements of the third in the group were  "only assessments and suppositions," the decision found.

"Collection of mere indications"

The court went into more detail as to Z. This (source) placed A.S. among others, close to the Muslim Brotherhood for investigators. Z. Claimed that A.S. told him that he had belonged to the Islamist movement of Egyptian origin for 16 years. In the ruling, there is now criticism that the (investigators) asked no "control questions" that could have verified the accuracy of this claim.

After Z. laid out his allegations publicly in an interview with Exxpress, since taken offline, he was convicted of defamation, at least in the first instance.

Roughly speaking, the court took these (statements) by the three witnesses to be "a collection of mere indications, whose accuracy is not verifiable due to a lack of more meaningful (corroboration), rumors and assumptions from sources that can no longer be corroborated, as well as their interpretation and further dissemination in the form of conclusions and suppositions that are not subject to testimony-either as to witnesses or co-accused."

Aside from that, two years after the Operation Luxor raids, the court found  "no underlying basis" in the investigative files that would fuel the suspicion that A.S. "took part as a member in a terrorist association (especially Hamas), criminal organization, or  subversive connection relative to Austria, otherwise supports such associations in any way, or finances terrorist activities."

Operation Luxor took place one week after the jihadist terror attack on November 2. The operation, however, had been already planned long before the attack. Of the almost 100 accused- naturally, partly individuals, partly organizations- nobody was imprisoned. As of now, nobody is charged either.

 (Jan Michael Marchart, January 6, 2023.)  


* The German term used, Gefährderansprache, refers to a police interview of a suspected dangerous person, as a form of warning. Kujtim Fejzulai was the author of the terror attack in Vienna in November 2020.


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