Austria to jail convicted terrorists indefinitely

Austrians pay their respects at the site of last week's terror attack in Vienna

Credit: LEONHARD FOEGER/REUTERS

Austria is to introduce new measures to enable convicted terrorists to be jailed indefinitely if they are considered a threat to society.

The move is part of a new anti-terror package announced by the Austrian government on Wednesday in response to last week’s Islamic State attack in Vienna.

The measures also include electronic tagging for terrorists released from prison, stricter gun laws and a new law to criminalise the encouragement of Islamic extremism.

Sebastian Kurz, the Austrian chancellor, said the measures were intended to protect society from extremists he described as “ticking time bombs”.

“If a mentally disturbed criminal can be locked up for life because he is a threat to society, then a terrorist who poses a threat can also be locked up for life,” he said.

Under the new measures, courts would be given the authority to hand down whole-life tariffs for convicted terrorists or to order them to be held until they were no longer a danger to society. 

Kujtim Fejzulai, the gunman who murdered four people and injured 22 in Vienna last week, was jailed last year for attempting to travel to Syria to join Isil but released early after convincing authorities he had been deradicalised.

The new measures were announced by Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz

Credit: LISI NIESNER/REUTERS

Other measures in the package include an official register for imams and the power to close places of worship deemed to encourage extremism.

Authorities will be given the power to strip convicted terrorists of Austrian citizenship, remove their driving licenses and ban them from obtaining a gun license for life.

Among the more controversial measures are plans for a new law to criminalise political activity that encourages violent Islamic extremism.

“We will create a criminal offense of ‘political Islam’ in order to take action against those who are not terrorists themselves, but who create the breeding ground for such activities,” Mr Kurz said.

Experts cautioned any such law would have to be carefully drafted to conform to the Austrian constitution.

The official government statement clarified that it would criminalise “religiously motivated political extremism” rather than all forms of political Islam.

Werner Kogler, the Austrian vice-chancellor, said the new anti-terror package would also target neo-Nazis, who he said “have more in common with Islamists than you think”.

The Austrian government has come under criticism over its failure to identify the Vienna gunman as a threat despite his conviction for trying to join Isil.

Fejzulai was not being monitored and Austrian intelligence failed to act on a warning from authorities in Slovakia that he had tried to buy ammunition there.