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Stefan Fredriksson

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Date 03.11.2020

Vienna terror attack: Police launch massive manhunt

A massive manhunt is underway in the Austrian capital after an attack that left four civilians dead. Authorities say at least one "Islamist terrorist" was behind the shootings and that more suspects may be at large.

Hundreds of police have been deployed across Vienna to search for suspects after gunmen opened fire at multiple locations in the city, killing at least four people and injuring 17.

The shootings came as many people were out and about enjoying the last evening before a nationwide coronavirus lockdown was due to come into force.

One suspected attacker, who was armed with an assault rifle and wearing a fake suicide vest, was shot dead by police.

Interior Minister Karl Nehammer told an early morning press conference on Tuesday that investigations indicated the man was a sympathizer of the extremist group "Islamic State." He added that more perpetrators may be on the run and urged citizens to stay home if possible.

Two men and two women have been confirmed dead. Health authorities cited by Austria's APA news agency also said seven victims of the attack were in a critical, life-threatening condition in hospital.

What we know so far

  • Gunfire erupted outside Vienna's main synagogue shortly before 8 p.m. local time (1900 GMT/UTC) on Monday
  • Authorities said there were shootings at six different locations in the city center
  • Witnesses described men firing dozens of rounds into crowds at bars and restaurants with automatic rifles
  • It is unclear how many attackers were involved in the attack
  • At least 1,000 officers have been deployed in the search for potential attackers
  • Neighboring countries, including Germany and the Czech Republic have stepped up border checks

What we know about the gunmen

  • Authorities said one attacker shot dead by police appeared to have an Islamist motive
  • The deceased attacker was 20-years-old and held dual citizenship in Austria and North Macedonia
  • Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said the man was convicted in April 2019 because he had tried to travel to Syria to join the extremist "Islamic State" group
  • Police used explosives to blast their way into the apartment of the suspected attacker

  • They have also carried out searches of other properties as part of their investigation

[...]

https://www.dw.com/en/vienna-terror-attack-police-launch-massive-manhunt/a-55481276

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One of the attackers is "citizen of the Northern Macedonia". Funny way to say Albanian.

Edited by bojan
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53 minutes ago, bojan said:

One of the attackers is "citizen of the Northern Macedonia". Funny way to say Albanian.

Well they do have the largest % per capita of tourists to Syria the last few years...

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Maybe split off Vienna events into a topic of its own, starting with the unruly churchgoers on the last page?

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14 arrested in wake of deadly terror attack in Austria

Updated on: November 3, 2020 / 9:09 AM / CBS/AFP

More than a dozen people were arrested on Tuesday in police raids following a shooting attack by at least one gunman who opened fire at multiple locations across Austria's capital the previous night. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz described the shootings in Vienna as a "repulsive terror attack." At least four people were killed and more than 20 others wounded, including seven left in life-threatening condition.

One suspect, identified as a 20-year-old ISIS sympathizer, was shot dead by police on Monday evening. He was a dual citizen of Austria and North Macedonia, officials confirmed Tuesday.

Authorities said earlier that they were searching for at least one more assailant, but Interior Minister Karl Nehammer later said an analysis of cell phone videos from the crime scenes did not indicate that any other attackers were involved.

Nehammer told the ANA  news agency on Tuesday morning that searches had been conducted on at least 15 properties, including one associated with the slain suspect. ANA said at least two people were detained in connection with the attacks in the town of St. Polten, about 40 miles west of Vienna, where the slain suspect lived.

[...]

Nehammer said Tuesday that the slain attacker was "a radicalized person who felt close to" ISIS. He was quoted by ANA as saying the man had been jailed in 2019 for trying to travel to Syria to join ISIS there. APA said the man was sentenced to 22 months in prison in April 2019, but then released due to his young age in December.

At a later news conference, Nehammer said the attacker had fooled a Germany deradicalization program for extremists.

A man claiming involvement in the attack posted a picture on an Instagram account before the bloodshed, posing with a Kalashnikov, a handgun and a large knife. The man wrote in German that he was pledging allegiance to the leader of ISIS. The account was taken offline on Monday, and CBS News cannot verify that the individual pictured was among the attackers, but he did bear some resemblance — in terms of built, general appearance and a large black watch — to one of the attackers seen in amateur videos. 

As of Tuesday, ISIS had not issued any claim of responsibility for the attacks.

[...]

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/vienna-shooting-terror-attack-death-toll-rises-massive-manhunt/

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17 hours ago, Simon Tan said:

Skopje no? 

Was there a couple of years ago with my wife. Great hotel "the hunters inn" brilliant food and gun range down stairs

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For once, Recep Tayyip is a hero in this. 😄

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Vienna attack: two men hailed for helping wounded

Mikail Ozen and Recep Tayyip Gultekin praised for courage and for video appealing for unity of all religions

Agence France-Presse
Tue 3 Nov 2020 23.39 GMT
 

Two young Austrians have been hailed for their courage following the deadly gun attack in the capital, Vienna, after footage of them intervening to aid wounded people including a policeman spread across social media.

A video shot from a nearby building shows the pair running to a metro station exit and helping panicked passers-by to take cover as gunshots were still echoing down the street.

On Tuesday the interior ministry confirmed, without naming the two friends, that they had helped during the attack late on Monday carried out by a radicalised young man from North Macedonia.

The assailant killed four people before being shot dead by police.

Mikail Ozen and Recep Tayyip Gultekin, both Austrian citizens from Turkish backgrounds, had planned to “drink a last coffee” together at bustling Schwedenplatz before the country’s coronavirus lockdown came into effect, they said in a video posted online immediately after the attack.

The first shots could be heard even as they arrived at the busy square by the river to find “people lying on the ground covered in blood”, Ozen recalled.

They went to help a panicked older woman who was looking for a place to hide – only to see a wounded policeman lying on the ground.

“We couldn’t act as if we hadn’t seen him,” Ozen said. “We ran and carried him to the ambulance” by supporting him under his shoulders as the gunfire continued.

The two semi-professional martial arts practitioners issued an appeal for unity between “Jews, Christians and Muslims” that was picked up by many Austrian media outlets.

“We’re Muslims of Turkish origin, we hate any kind of terrorism. We’re with Austria, with Vienna, we respect Austria,” they said.

Turkish media reported that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had called the pair to congratulate them.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/04/vienna-attack-two-austrians-of-turkish-origin-hailed-for-helping-wounded

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As the perpetrator was Albanian-descended, I don't quite follow. And yes, those guys are being used for propaganda, including by the other Recep. Some Palestinian helper has now also popped up.

Meanwhile the search for fuck-ups has begun. And the IS has woken up to claim the attack.

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Vienna attack: Austria admits failing to act on Slovak warning on gunman

Published 16 hours ago

Austria's interior minister has admitted that a warning from Slovakia last summer about a gunman who went on the rampage in the centre of Vienna was not followed up.

Four people were fatally shot and 23 others wounded on Monday night.

Police in Slovakia revealed they had tipped off Austrian authorities about "suspects from Austria" trying to buy ammunition in July.

Reports suggest the trip to buy bullets failed as the gunman had no licence.

It has also emerged he was released early from a jail sentence last December for trying to join jihadists in Syria.

According to German media, the 20-year-old, who was shot dead by police nine minutes after the attack began, travelled to neighbouring Slovakia to buy ammunition for a Kalashnikov AK-47 assault rifle but returned empty-handed.

Slovak police said they had informed their Austrian colleagues immediately, adding they would not comment further.

Asked about the revelations on Wednesday, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said the information had been investigated by the BVT domestic intelligence agency but no further action had been taken.

"Something obviously went wrong in communication," he told reporters, adding that he wanted an independent inquiry to find out why.

Who were the victims?

More details have emerged about the four people murdered in the centre of Vienna in the hours before new coronavirus restrictions were due to come into force:

  • A 24-year-old German student was killed in front of the restaurant in Ruprechtsplatz where she worked as a waitress; she'd been studying at the nearby University of Applied Arts
  • A 21-year-old man originally from North Macedonia was shot near Fleischmarkt; Nedzip V. was described as a painter who loved football and played for years for local club FC Bisamberg
  • A 39-year-old Austrian man was killed in front of a fast food restaurant in Schwedenplatz
  • A 44-year-old Austrian woman died later in hospital of her wounds. Reports said she worked nearby for Vienna-based company Tribotecc

Among the 23 people wounded in the attack, 13 suffered bullet wounds and seven are in a serious condition. Most are from Austria, but some are from Germany, Slovakia, Luxembourg and other countries. One of those in a serious condition was also a student at the university of applied arts, known as Die Angewandte.

Austrian authorities say the killer was armed with an automatic weapon, a pistol and a machete as well as a fake explosive belt.

They were initially unsure if there had been more than one gunman, after Monday night's attack which lasted nine minutes across six crime scenes.

But the interior minister confirmed on Wednesday that he had acted alone, as a review of videos received by police was now complete. Jihadist group Islamic State (IS) claimed on its propaganda outlet Amaq that it was behind the attack.

The centre of Vienna began returning to normal on Wednesday and Mayor Michael Ludwig held a minute's silence in memory of the victims, as Austria marked a second day of mourning.

Fourteen people have been detained in Austria who were linked to the gunman and the interior minister said they were aged 16 to 28 and with a migrant background.

Swiss police have arrested two others and Justice Minister Karin Keller-Sutter has alleged that the pair had been "colleagues" of the gunman. "The three men also met in person," she told St Galler Tagblatt.

The conduct of Austria's BVT intelligence agency has come under direct attack from Herbert Kickl, the former interior minister when the far-right Freedom Party was part of the coalition government that collapsed in May 2019.

But the current interior minister said the BVT agency had been profoundly damaged, if not destroyed, while Mr Kickl was in office.

Kurz calls for European action

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has responded to the Vienna attack by urging the European Union to "focus much more strongly on the problem of political Islam in the future". He said he had spoken to France's Emmanuel Macron and many others with the aim of co-ordinating more closely.

He told Germany's Die Welt: "I hope we will see an end to this misunderstood tolerance and that all countries in Europe will finally realise how dangerous the ideology of political Islam is for our freedom and the European way of life."

Elsewhere, Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio has called for an EU Patriot Act, along the lines of the US law which increased surveillance powers after the 9/11 attacks. "Europe and Italy itself cannot continue with just words," he said, referring to the attacks on Vienna and on Nice last week. The Nice attacker had travelled from Tunisia via Italy into the south of France.

MEP Antonio Tajani has repeated his call for a European FBI, to co-ordinate the work of police and intelligence services, working in tandem against IS militants.

What we know about the gunman

Austria's interior minister revealed that the "Islamist terrorist", named Kujtim Fejzulai, had been jailed for 22 months in April 2019 for trying to travel to Syria to join IS jihadists and freed after only eight months.

He was released under more lenient terms for young adults, after convincing the authorities that he no longer held extremist Islamist views, Mr Nehammer said.

However, the Derad association that handles a de-radicalisation programme in Austria's jails has rejected remarks by the interior minister that the gunman had "fooled" its staff into granting him an early release. He was never assessed by his supervisor as "de-radicalised", the association insisted, but had been subject to strict parole conditions.

He had both Austrian and Macedonian citizenship and relatives in North Macedonia told Reuters news agency he had been caught in Turkey two years ago and sent back to Austria.

The head of public security, Franz Ruf, confirmed later that Fejzulai had entered Turkey on 1 September 2018 and had been arrested as a "foreign fighter" on his return to Austria in January 2019.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54810906

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Meanwhile back in France:

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Date 04.11.2020

France bans Turkish ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves group

France has banned a far-right group that is seen as a militant wing of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party. The ban on the Grey Wolves comes amid significant tensions between Ankara and Paris over handling extremism.

The French government on Wednesday banned the Grey Wolves, a far-right nationalist group accused of violent actions and inciting hate speech in France.

The ban was approved during a weekly Cabinet meeting, according to government spokesperson Gabriel Attal.

France accused the group of "extremely violent actions," spreading "extremely violent threats'' and creating "incitement to hatred against authorities and Armenians,'' Attal said, citing an Armenian memorial near the eastern city of Lyon that was found defaced last weekend.

The 1915 Armenian genocide memorial had "Grey wolf" and "RTE," the initials of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, written on it, as well as pro-Turkish slogans.

Armenians have long campaigned for the mass killings of their ancestors in the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to be recognized as genocide. France backs their call.

Who are the Grey Wolves?

The Grey Wolves group is linked to a top ally of the Turkish president and is seen as a militant wing of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), which is allied with Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the Turkish parliament.

The Grey Wolves was a nickname given to members of a fringe Turkish movement that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s.

The group used violence in the 1980s against leftist activists and ethnic minorities.

[...]

Turkey hits back

In reaction to the ban on the Grey Wolves, Ankara vowed to "respond in the firmest way possible."

The Turkish Foreign Ministry denied the very existence of the group, saying France was "dealing with an imaginary formation."

In a statement, the ministry said the French government had to "protect the freedom of assembly and expression of Turks in France."

It accused the French government of ignoring "incitements, threats and attacks" against Turks in France.

The Foreign Ministry said banning the group showed, "The French government is now completely under Armenian influence." It accused France of "double standards" and "hypocrisy" because it allows the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and other groups to be active in France.

Turkey considers the PKK to be a terrorist organization.

https://www.dw.com/en/france-bans-turkish-ultra-nationalist-grey-wolves-group/a-55503469

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Date 07.11.2020

France: Three teens charged in beheading of history teacher

The three new suspects are accused of "criminal terrorist conspiracy," according to judicial sources. Ten people have now been charged in connection with the murder of teacher Samuel Paty last month.

Two 18-year-old men and a 17-year-old girl were charged Friday with "criminal terrorist conspiracy" in the murder of French history teacher Samuel Paty, a judicial source told news agency AFP. 

Paty, 47, was decapitated last month in the Paris suburb of Conflans-Sainte-Honorine after showing cartoons of Prophet Muhammad during a class discussion on freedom of speech. He was murdered by 18-year-old Abdullakh Anzorov, who was shot dead by police.

The cartoons in question were published by satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo in September to mark the start of a trial of a 2015 attack by gunmen.

Ten charged so far

The two men — one French and one of Russian-Chechen origin — are accused of being in touch with Paty's killer, Anzorov. They have been placed in pre-trial detention. The female suspect has been accused of being in touch with one of the two men. She is currently in a youth detention center. The three were detained in separate regions of France, according to a judicial source cited by AFP.

Ten people have been charged in connection with the murder so far, including a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old accused of pointing out Paty to his killer. In France, being charged does not necessarily result in a trial — a case can be dropped due to lack of evidence. 

The murder sparked outrage across the country and prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to announce a crackdown on Islamist terrorism. The move led to anti-France protests and calls for boycotts of French products in several Muslim countries around the world.

Also on Friday, prosecutors said they had charged three other teenagers with "supporting terrorism" for threats made during a national tribute to Paty.

https://www.dw.com/en/france-three-teens-charged-in-beheading-of-history-teacher/a-55526223

 

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Date 06.11.2020

Austria closes Vienna mosque after deadly attack

Authorities in Austria have ordered the closure of a mosque frequented by the attacker who killed four people in Vienna. The police confirmed Germany had sent information linked to the gunman months before the shooting.

Following a deadly rampage in Vienna, Austrian authorities have moved to close two places of worship in the city that were allegedly linked with the Islamist attacker who killed four people this week. One of them was a mosque registered under the Austrian law while the other was an Islamic association that operated as a mosque, the authorities said on Friday.

Both the Tewhid Mosque and the Melit Ibrahim Association were apparently frequented by the 20-year-old gunman.

Interior Minister Karl Nehammer described the closure as an "important step" against those who try to take advantage of the rule of law in Austria.

"We will always be facing a challenge of violent people, criminal organizations trying to hide behind the rule of law, legal structures — it will be a permanent battle," said Nehammer.

Austrian Integration Minister Susanne Raab warned that people often get radicalized by an ideology that does not cross into illegal territory.

Instead, "it stirs up a victimhood narrative, communicates an anti-Western position," Raab said. Such narratives can be "dangerous, especially for people who are often in an individual identity crisis."

At the same time, Raab warned that Austria's response to this week's terror attack "was not a fight against Muslims in Austria." Everyone should fight radicalization together because Muslims are "the most threatened by political Islam and the extremists," she added.

Trails lead to Slovakia, Germany, Switzerland

Austrian authorities have already admitted a "failure of communication" with their Slovak counterparts, who informed Austria that the gunman, already convicted for wanting to join the "Islamic State" militia, attempted to buy ammunition on Slovakian territory.

On Friday, Nehammer amped up the criticism of Austria's security apparatus, saying there were "obvious and, from our perspective, intolerable mistakes" made in the runup to the terror attack.

The head of Vienna's counterterrorism agency would be stepping down during the probe.

Appearing alongside Nehammer and Raab on Friday, Vienna police head Gerhard Pürstl confirmed that Austria had received information from Germany ahead of the attack. German authorities asked the Austrian police to monitor a meeting between the future attacker and a group of Germany-based extremists in July.

On Friday, Germany launched a series of raids over the Vienna attack.  Two men were also arrested in Switzerland.

https://www.dw.com/en/austria-closes-vienna-mosque-after-deadly-attack/a-55523158

 

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Date 06.11.2020

German police raid flats, homes over Vienna attack

German police say they've searched the premises of four people believed to have had ties to Monday's attacker in Vienna. Austrian authorities acknowledged intelligence errors and announced the resignation of personnel.

Germany’s federal BKA investigations bureau said police searches were conducted Friday in the northern cities of Osnabruck, Kassel and Pinneberg county near Hamburg — in homes and business premises.

"There is no initial suspicion that the four people affected by today's measures took part in the [Vienna] attack," said the BKA, based in Wiesbaden, "but there are believed to have been links with the suspected attacker."

The 20-year-old attacker was killed by police on Monday after he shot dead four people and injured more than 20 others in central Vienna.

[...]

Intelligence errors

On Thursday, Austrian opposition parties failed to press a no-confidence motion against Interior Minister Nehammer after he had acknowledged intelligence errors.

These included a Slovakian police statement that "suspected persons from Austria" had been trying to buy ammunition during the European summer.

Vienna police chief Gerhard Pürstl announced on Friday a reshuffle in Austria's intelligence services following the intelligence errors. He said that Austrian agents had observed a meeting between German radicals and the 20-year-old attacker. Germany had asked Austrian authorities to monitor the meeting in Vienna in July. 

Pürstl acknowledged that mistakes were made in the risk assessment of the would-be attacker, who was on parole after a previous terrorism-related conviction.

Pürstl had said the killer was not clearly identifiable in photos sent from Slovakia. He then announced the resignation of Vienna's intelligence chief, as well as several other changes in personnel.

'Intensive' input from FBI

Nehammer said among the 16 suspects detained in Austria four already had convictions for terrorism-related offenses, two for violent crimes, and two for an attempted "honor killing."

"We have had intensive cooperation with the FBI," Nehammer said, adding the US agency had provided Austrian authorities with "valuable information."

During a candlelight vigil in Vienna on Thursday, imans, rabbis and the city’s Roman Catholic Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, walked past attack locations and prayed together for the victims.

The youngest was a 21-year-old, identified as Nedzip V. The others were a 24-year-old German student, who had been working as a waitress, a 39-year-old man and a 44-year-old woman.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-police-raid-flats-homes-over-vienna-attack/a-55515747

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Date 14.11.2020

Author Max Zander

EU interior ministers step up efforts to combat terrorism

In the wake of recent attacks in Paris, Nice and Vienna, the EU member states have declared a new war on terrorism. Can enhanced surveillance be a silver bullet? DW's Max Zander reports from Brussels.

The date of the virtual meeting could hardly have had more symbolic power. Five years ago on Friday, attackers went on a rampage in Paris equipped with automatic rifles and bomb jackets. The gunmen, who pledged allegiance to the "Islamic State" terror group, killed 130 people and wounded more than 600. Paris marked the anniversary on Friday (November 13), with a delegation led by French Prime Minister Jean Castex commemorating the victims.

But even five years after the Paris attacks, the Islamist terror issue remains topical. France has once again declared its highest terror alert level, following attacks in Paris and Nice this autumn. Earlier this month, an attacker shot four people in the Austrian capital Vienna, wounding some two dozen others.

Closing the ranks in the fight against terror

Initially, today's meeting of the EU's interior ministers was meant to be dedicated to a common migration and asylum policy. In light of recent events, however, the focus shifted to their common fight against armed extremism.

"We reaffirm our determination to do everything in our power to counter this barbaric terror," the ministers said in a statement which went on to sketch out a future joint approach.

This is to include, among other things, improved information exchange among security services on extremist threats, an effective and speedy removal of terror propaganda from the internet, as well as tighter control of the borders of the Schengen area (Europe's passport-free travel zone). German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer called the joint statement a great signal of solidarity in Europe. If all member states stuck together in combating terror, the minister said, Europe could be a superpower.

Encrypted chats under scrutiny

The ministers will, however, probably face resistance when it comes to implementing some of their plans. Seehofer spoke out in favor of granting authorities access to encrypted conversations in messaging services. In theory, investigators could read those conversations and thwart possible terror attacks.

It emerged recently that EU member states have already begun work on a resolution which would oblige platform providers such as WhatsApp to enable chat surveillance via some kind of "master key." Patrick Breyer, a Member of the European Parliament for the German Pirate Party, told a German radio broadcaster: "We must decide whether we want to deprive everyone of safe communication because it is misused by a few. Or whether we say, the safety of communication is of higher value in our society."

But Seehofer argued: "In the wake of every terrorist attack, security services and politicians find themselves targeted by criticism, but often enough we are denied the relevant powers." According to Seehofer, all options — including surveillance of encrypted communication — should be on the table, with regard to their legitimacy and as part of a public debate.  

Migration in the crosshairs

Another sensitive issue was addressed in the interior ministers' joint statement under the title "Social Cohesion," beneath which was a paragraph dealing with the integration of migrants. Among other things, the ministers stated that "integration is a two-way street."

Although both Seehofer and European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson emphasized that immigration and terrorism must be treated separately, the joint statement created a connection between the two issues. "The sense of belonging and equality is of central importance for the social cohesion of our modern, pluralist and open societies," it said. In addition, "the undesirable foreign influencing of national civil and religious organizations through non-transparent financing should be limited."

Commissioner Johansson also spoke out in favor of enhanced surveillance of the EU's external borders. Some 22% of arrivals in the Schengen bloc were not properly registered, she said.

Erik Marquardt, a Member of the European Parliament for the Greens, pointed out that the Vienna attacker, as well as some of those involved in the 2015 terror attacks in Paris, were EU citizens. Simultaneously, he warned against connecting the issue to immigration alone: "Islamist radicalization is a European problem. We cannot simply deport this threat. Too often existing tools of surveillance and criminal prosecution go unused."

https://www.dw.com/en/eu-interior-ministers-step-up-efforts-to-combat-terrorism/a-55598193

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https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/11/islam-europe-lessons-medieval-spanish-raymond-ibrahim/

 

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A critical question arises in light of the recent spate of fatal terror attacks in France and other European nations: How do you once and for all eradicate “extremism” from Muslim communities living in the West?

Western leaders usually respond by citing anything and everything from new “initiatives” meant to foster closer relations between Muslim communities and their host nations, to surveillance measures of hot spots and mosques.

Lamentably, history has already proven that even much more draconian measures against Islam—of the sort that modern Western man cannot even conceive let along implement—are doomed to failure.  

(...)

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
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Date 26.11.2020

Samuel Paty: Four students charged over teacher's beheading

Three of the suspects, who are between 13 and 14 years old, face charges of "complicity in a terrorist murder."

Four students have been charged over the killing of a Paris teacher last month, French media reported on Thursday.

In October, an Islamist terrorist murdered Samuel Paty and removed his head after the teacher showed his students cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad taken from the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine.

Three of the suspects were reportedly accused of "complicity in a terrorist murder" by allegedly pointing Paty out to the killer. The three students are aged between 13 and 14 years old, French news agency AFP reported. 

The fourth suspect is the daughter of the man who led an online campaign against the teacher, AFP reported. She has reportedly been charged with "slanderous denunciation" of Paty for relating her story of the civics lesson despite not attending the class.

The new suspects come in addition to the two other pupils who were charged earlier this month. Those two schoolchildren, aged 14 and 15, were indicted for "complicity in terrorist assassination" and placed under judicial supervision. 

Justice authorities are now investigating 14 suspects in connection the crime, which is being treated as an act of Islamist extremism.

French President Emmanuel Macron has intensified a crackdown on Islamist activity in France since the incident, attracting criticism from the Muslim world.

https://www.dw.com/en/samuel-paty-four-students-charged-over-teachers-beheading/a-55732768

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  • 3 weeks later...
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WED DEC 16, 2020 / 5:28 PM GMT

French court finds accomplices to Charlie Hebdo attackers guilty

Tangi Salaün

PARIS (Reuters) - A French court on Wednesday convicted 14 people of crimes ranging from financing terrorism to membership of a criminal gang in relation to Islamist attacks in 2015 against the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket.

The trial has reopened one of modern France's darkest episodes, just as another wave of Islamist attacks on home soil this autumn, including the beheading of a schoolteacher, prompted the government to crack down on what it calls Islamist separatism.

Brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stormed Charlie Hebdo's offices in Paris, spraying gunfire and killing 12, on Jan. 7, 2015, nearly a decade after the weekly published cartoons mocking the Prophet Mohammed.

A third attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, killed a police woman and then four Jewish hostages in a kosher supermarket in a Paris suburb. Like the Kouachis, Coulibaly was killed in a shootout with police.

Among the 14 accomplices sentenced on Wednesday was Hayat Boumeddiene, the former partner of Coulibaly and one of three defendants tried in absentia. Believed to be still alive and on the run from an international arrest warrant, prosecutors referred to her as an "Islamic State princess".

The judges convicted Boumeddiene, 32, of financing terrorism and belonging to a criminal terrorist network, and sentenced her to 30 years in jail.

[...] 

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-france-charliehebdo-trial-idUKKBN28Q27X

 

Quote

French court jails Moroccan for life over foiled 2015 train attack

Issued on: 17/12/2020 - 18:26

Paris (AFP)

A French court on Thursday jailed for life a Moroccan man who planned a terror attack on a Paris-bound international train in 2015 but was thwarted by passengers including off-duty US soldiers.

The Paris court convicted Ayoub El Khazzani, now 31, over the August 2015 plot on the Amsterdam-Paris high-speed Thalys train and also issued sentences of between seven to 27 years to three accomplices.

The events inspired a 2018 film "The 15:17 to Paris" directed by Hollywood legend Clint Eastwood who had at the start of the trial been mooted as a possible witness but in the end was not asked to appear.

The court ruled Khazzani would have committed "an indiscriminate attack" which would have been "particularly deadly", had it not been for "a combination of particularly improbable circumstances" including faulty ammunition and "the exceptional courage of the passengers".

[...] 

https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20201217-french-court-jails-moroccan-for-life-over-foiled-2015-train-attack

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