As the Austrian Minister of the Interior Herbert Kickl said in the Vienna parliament, „two other suspected terrorists“ were arrested in Prague. The two had „formed a common cell“ with the Iraqi who had been arrested in Vienna.
Austrian Interior Minister Kickl | Source: dpagalerie Minister of the Interior Kickl speaks in connection with the arrests of terror.
A spokeswoman for the Czech police confirmed the arrests on request of the news agency dpa. The two foreign nationals were arrested on Wednesday shortly after their landing at Prague airport on the basis of a European arrest warrant. This was issued by the Austrian State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and the fight against terrorism.
District court examines pre-trial detention
How to proceed with the arrested 42-year-old Iraqi could decide later in the day. The district court advises on the imposition of a pre-trial detention. This also applies to his wife also arrested, said a court spokeswoman.
The man is accused of attempted murder, among other things. He wants to have acted alone according to previous statements. He denies a terrorist background. In Germany, however, there is an arrest warrant for him because of terrorist offenses, attempted murder and dangerous interference in the rail traffic. In the vicinity of both crime scenes near Nuremberg and Karlshorst, the police found IS flags and multi-page letters of confession.
According to a report by the Austrian „Kronen Zeitung“, the ex-military stated in interrogations that they had acted out of revenge on the West and especially on Germany. He was injured in a military operation on the Iraqi-Turkish border of a bomb. The attacks are part of a personal campaign, but not an act of a terrorist network.
In the attacks, strained steel cables were supposed to derail trains across the rails. Nobody got hurt. The Iraqi, who has been living in Austria since 2012 as a recognized refugee, faces a life imprisonment.
