Lorenz K. in court

Shouting match in the terror trial against Lorenz K.

Lorenz K. is led into the courtroom under heavy guard and the highest security precautions.

(Bild: Bissuti Kristian/Kristian Bissuti, Krone KREATIV)

Seven years ago, he incited a 13-year-old German to commit a suicide attack. In prison, Lorenz K. is said to have simply carried on as before, radicalizing others - even calling for murder. "IS was my world", he admits in the Vienna Regional Court. The defense and the prosecutor caused a loud commotion during the trial.

He is hardly recognizable since his last trial, weighs twice as much and is pumped up with muscles. The 25-year-old now finds himself in a very similar situation to that of 2017. Lorenz K. has to stand trial before a jury for attempted intent to murder, attempted intent to endanger with explosives and the crimes of terrorist association and criminal organization.

Lorenz K. is led into the courtroom heavily guarded and under the highest security precautions.

(Bild: Bissuti Kristian/Kristian Bissuti, Krone KREATIV)

13-year-old sent to Advent market with bomb
At the end of November 2016, the Viennese incited a 13-year-old from Ludwigshafen in Germany to commit a suicide bomb attack at an Advent market. It was only because the bomb he had built failed to detonate that the boy remained alive and the attempted murder provision was upheld - for which Lorenz K. was sentenced to nine years in prison.

Please always remember what a dangerous man Lorenz K. is.

Der Staatsanwalt an die Geschworenen

The public prosecutor points out: "The charges today are completely identical to the first trial." The 25-year-old has been serving his sentence in various prisons for seven years and has actually had an illegal cell phone since the beginning - Lorenz K. has never stopped spreading propaganda and the ideas of IS. He is said to have called on a total of four people to carry out a terrorist attack. Fortunately, it remained an attempt.

IS "like a drug addiction"
His defence lawyer David Jodlbauer emphasizes that this has nothing to do with luck: "When he was arrested, he was definitely a terrorist, a Salafist, an IS supporter. He believed the madness spread by the IS. But he certainly isn't now." His client never really believed that someone would commit an attack because of him.

Is he so stupid as to do the same thing again? Is he such an incorrigible Salafist, a terrorist? Is he a lost sheep that needs to be ostracized? No, he is not.

Verteidiger David Jodlbauer über seinen Mandanten Lorenz K.

Bild: Bissuti Kristian/Kristian Bissuti

The 25-year-old has received support, strength and attention from like-minded people - not a given in prisons. "You can become addicted to that. Mr. K. himself describes it as a drug addiction, where he can always relapse," explains lawyer Jodlbauer. And that was also the case when he sought contact with the second defendant. Rudolf Mayer's client is serving a 16-year prison sentence for attempted murder, among other things. 

Break after loud emotional outburst
He spent part of his sentence in the same prison as the well-known hate preacher Mirsad O. - who ultimately radicalized the 34-year-old. Lawyer Mayer draws attention to the man's deeply rooted Serbian-Christian faith: "He was anything but an Islamist. So why does someone like that jump on the bandwagon? Because IS propaganda is excellent." Rudolf Mayer criticized the prison conditions, asking how it could be that a convicted hate preacher could continue to recruit people in prison.

Defense lawyer Rudolf Mayer represents the second defendant.

(Bild: Zwefo)

A criticism that the public prosecutor - as representative of the Republic of Austria - does not put up with. He responds to the defense's opening statements: "That's all just lawyer kitsch, what you heard there," he says to the lay judges. Defense attorney Rudolf Mayer does not want to be told that - after a shouting match, the trial is interrupted for a short break. Mayer then stays out of the courtroom and his colleague takes over.

When the heated atmosphere subsides, Lorenz K. speaks for the first time, giving deep insights into his radicalization. He went to prison for the first time at the age of 14. His cellmate gave him a Koran "and it actually contained everything I was looking for. It was like an answer for me. It was the only thing in my life that I ever learned. I knew my way around it. IS was my world. For me, it was the liberator of all evil. It was the necessary evil."

However, he did not plead guilty to murder. He may have been a member of the terrorist organization, but: "I knew that he was not prepared to commit murder." And he says the same about his other three like-minded people. If convicted as charged, the 25-year-old faces up to life imprisonment. The trial will continue with witnesses on May 13.