Second trial for terrorism against ISIS man Lorenz K.

There was a ban on photography and filming in the courtroom. “Think how dangerous Lorenz K. is,” prosecutor Hannes Winklhofer told the jury at the start of the trial. He “at the first opportunity obtained a tool to publicize the ‘Islamic State’ and to specifically encourage people to commit suicide attacks.”

The prosecutor underlined that the now 25-year-old had illegal cell phones in prison and used them “to incite people to carry out attacks. This is the definition of a terrorist.”

Terrorist attack expected

After the prosecutor, lawyers David Jodlbauer and Rudolf Mayer gave their say. When Mayer pointed out that Lorenz K. and a 33-year-old co-defendant had become radicalized in prison and identified a “failure of state organizations”, the situation became emotional. The prosecutor rejected this version with the words “lawyer kitsch”, which led to a heated exchange of fire between Winklhofer and Mayer. The hearing was interrupted for several minutes to allow things to calm down.

The public prosecutor accuses Lorenz K. and a co-defendant – the two met in prison in Graz-Karlau (JA) – of numerous terrorist crimes committed in prison. Lorenz K. must answer for murder and intentional damage with explosives, all committed as terrorist crimes, “even if these crimes remain in the experimental phase”, as the public prosecutor explained. Furthermore, the crimes of terrorist organizations and criminal organizations are indicted. If convicted as charged, Lorenz K., whose regular sentence ends at the end of October 2026, should expect another ten to twenty years or even life in prison.

Again accused of terrorist activity

After the attacks in Paris in October 2015 and in Brussels in March 2016 in the name of the radical Islamic terrorist militia “Islamic State” (IS), the then 17-year-old Lorenz K. planned and wanted an attack against German Germany. American military base in Ramstein Furthermore, at the end of November 2016, a then minor boy was convinced to carry out a suicide attack at a Christmas market in Ludwigshafen, Germany, using a home-made explosive device. Although he was convicted for this and served a nine-year prison sentence, he apparently has not given up on his IS followers.

According to the current indictment, he carried out his renewed terrorist activities since November 2019, initially in the Stein penitentiary and, after his transfer to Graz, from January 2020 in the Karlau penitentiary using illegally obtained mobile phones. Lorenz K. managed two Instagram profiles with 278 and 73 subscribers respectively and used the WhatsApp messaging service, adding the IS logo to his profiles. “The name makes the man on the scene,” Lorenz K. said during the interrogation of the accused. He admitted to having disseminated ISIS propaganda material through channels. He was interested in “attention and recognition”: “I was in the cell all day, lazy.” He was “too stubborn” “to turn his back on ISIS. That was the only thing I knew in my life. I couldn’t part with it. It was hard for me to refuse people’s recognition.”

Widespread ISIS propaganda

Lorenz K. also allegedly incited with his cell phone an alleged German contact, who called himself Manfred U., to carry out a suicide attack with an explosive device in an unspecified location in Austria or Germany. “You can attack the Kuffar (the infidels, ed.) in secret,” Lorenz K. wrote to him, among other things, in a chat. “It was absolutely clear to me that he would not have carried out an attack in the form of a bomb,” said the defendant, rejecting the accusation of having incited his interlocutor to carry out an attack. During the conversation he wasn’t thinking about “anything in particular”, at most “an operation”.

The video with the instructions for building the bomb has been forwarded

In the Karlau penitentiary, where he worked as a domestic worker, Lorenz K. together with two other domestic workers formed a sort of “terror cell”. On the one hand he met Nino K. (33), convicted several times and now a co-defendant, who is serving a 16-year prison sentence for attempted robbery and who turned out to be a supporter of È. Lorenz K. sent the 33-year-old an ISIS propaganda video via WhatsApp, explaining that weapons were not needed to “cause devastating damage to the ‘Kuffar'”.

Lorenz K. instead came across Abdelkarim Abu H., whom the Krems Regional Court had sentenced to life imprisonment for attempting to commit murderous attacks and for participating in a terrorist organization – Hamas. Lorenz K. is said to have given “lifelong” instructions for making bombs. In early August 2020, during a search of Abdelkarim Abu H.’s cell, electronic components and four shell casings from a long gun were found, which he allegedly wanted to use to build an explosive device. The Graz prosecutor’s office investigates the Hamas terrorist separately.

Separately, in late July 2020, Lorenz K. downloaded onto his mobile phone in his cell an IS-produced video showing, among other things, how an IS hostage was killed, how a bomb was made and how an explosive device was detonated. . He sent this file to an unknown person who has not yet been identified. Regardless, the Prosecutor’s Office also qualifies this as attempted murder.

Process obscured by construction noise

The trial is likely to pose a particular challenge to the jury, and not just because of the subject matter. Even during the prosecutor’s opening statement it was difficult to follow the prosecutor’s statements. His words were partly lost in the noise of the works: the Vienna Regional Court is undergoing a general renovation, which is manifested, among other things, by the noise of jackhammers.

Externally Lorenz K. was no longer recognizable compared to the first trial. He is expected to train daily in prison, as can be seen from his toned body. He shaved his head and eight prison guards brought him handcuffed into the classroom while Lorenz K. chewed gum. The 25-year-old’s feet remained tied during the trial.