4-year entry ban

St. Stephen’s Cathedral attack: woman is deported

The suspects are said to have planned an attack on St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.

(Bild: Peter Tomschi)

A radical Islamist group is said to have planned attacks in Europe - including on St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna - just in time for Christmas. Now the first suspect has been deported from Austria and banned from entering the country. 

The Tajik-Turkish woman belonged to a group of four suspects who are said to have planned terrorist attacks on churches - including St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. Although the suspicions were too thin for a corresponding indictment, all four suspects were immediately taken into custody. One man has already been deported.

Woman deported to Turkey
On Thursday, the decision was made in Linz that a woman would also be deported to Turkey, as confirmed to the "Krone" by lawyer Andreas Schweitzer. The accused will also be banned from entering Austria for four years. The authorities had originally planned a ten-year entry ban, but this was significantly reduced in yesterday's hearing. The woman's children are already staying with their grandmother in Turkey and her husband is still in detention pending deportation in Vienna.

The suspects are said to have planned an attack on St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.

(Bild: Peter Tomschi)

Husband remains in custody pending deportation
Her husband from Tajikistan was recently able to get his deportation postponed, as reported by the "Krone" newspaper. He argued that he belonged to an opposition group that is banned in Tajikistan. He does not want to know anything about the attack plans or IS material on his cell phone.

After a six-hour hearing, the appeal against the deportation was finally upheld on the formal grounds that a decision had to be made on the asylum application first. This was based on a decision by the Administrative Court from 2016. However, if his asylum application is rejected - which is to be assumed - he will not be deported to his family in Turkey, but to Tajikistan. This is where Germany has already deported the suspected accomplice who was temporarily extradited to Vienna and was in custody here.