Probably not a "lone wolf"

Hasan E. case: omissions after the Mecca attack?

Hasan E. was probably mistaken for a "lone wolf". The defense lawyer of the "Swift assassin" even identifies a "multi-organ failure of the ministries" (symbolic image).

(Bild: AFP)

Austrian authorities are said to have failed to gather information about a Lower Austrian supporter of the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS) in time. The man who carried out an attack in Mecca in the name of IS has been in custody in Saudi Arabia for ten months. His close contact with the main suspect in the Swift investigation initially went undetected.

The young Lower Austrian from the district of Bruck an der Leitha is in custody in Saudi Arabia because the suspected supporter of the Islamist terror militia "Islamic State" (IS) allegedly carried out a religiously and ideologically motivated attack on the grounds of the Al-Haram mosque in Mecca in March 2024. Hasan E. stabbed five people with a knife, injuring some of them critically. How the case was handled within the country raises questions.

Hasan E.: wrongly classified as a lone offender
After the attack became known, the Korneuburg public prosecutor's office opened so-called domestic proceedings against the 20-year-old for attempted murder, terrorist association and criminal organization - as is usual in such constellations.

However, no targeted investigative steps were apparently taken because it was assumed that Hasan E. was a lone offender - a so-called "lone wolf". No formal arrest warrant was issued, and it apparently did not occur to the police to seize his laptop and any other evidence at his home in Lower Austria. On October 17, the proceedings were discontinued because the 20-year-old could not be apprehended.

Information about the Mecca bomber was not brought together
The Saudi authorities had first been informed about the bloody deed on March 20, 2024 by informing a German liaison officer about Hasan E., who then passed this knowledge on to Austrian officials. The 20-year-old's older brother had in turn reported him missing in mid-March after receiving a "farewell email" from Hasan E. in which he cryptically announced a suicide attack.

The young Lower Austrian had fatally wounded five people with a knife in Mecca for religious-ideological reasons (symbolic image).

(Bild: AP)

On April 10, the older brother testified as a witness before the Lower Austrian State Office for State Protection and Counter-Extremism (LSE) and reported on the email and the fact that Hasan E. had traveled to Istanbul with a friend on March 1 and had continued on to Mecca from there. On March 9, he had made a video call with the brother, during which Hasan, as a devout Muslim, had worn "traditional white clothing" in Mecca, the brother said.

Mother reported son's disappearance
The 20-year-old's mother contacted the German advice centre on radicalization on 14 March 2020 after learning of her son's "farewell email". "In the email and during the subsequent telephone contact, the person seeking advice stated that her son had disappeared yesterday," the office set up at the German Federal Office for Migration and Refugees stated in an email, which was sent to Austria on the same day "for forwarding to the competent authority". The mother "feared that her son had become radicalized after the death of his father and had now joined the jihad", the German advice centre warned. It was also noted that the woman had "already informed the Austrian diplomatic mission abroad about the situation".

However, none of this information was compiled in a timely manner and did not trigger any immediate investigations into the question of whether Hasan E. had contacts with Islamist circles. As a result, it remained undiscovered until well into the second half of the year that Hasan E. had been in close contact with Beran A. and at least one other potential terrorist since May 2023 and had made phone calls with Beran A., some of which lasted longer than 50 minutes. Beran A. - a 20-year-old IS supporter from the Neunkirchen district for a few days - is considered the main suspect in connection with the foiled plans to attack a Taylor Swift concert that was to have taken place in the Ernst Happel Stadium at the beginning of August 2024. Together with Hasan E. and a third man, Beran A. is said to have planned three simultaneous attacks in Mecca, Dubai and Istanbul since February 2024.

DSN: "All available measures taken"
The Directorate of State Security and Intelligence (DSN) responded promptly: "This case is an ongoing investigation, in the course of which new findings are constantly emerging, including through the analysis of seized data carriers, which are being investigated. For this reason, we are unable to provide any further information at this time," it said in a statement. It was emphasized that the Office for the Protection of the Constitution had "taken all legally available measures and investigative steps at all times" during the entire investigation. The Austrian authorities were only made aware of Hasan E. and his possible attack plans eleven days after the crime in Saudi Arabia was carried out.

Beran A. explained his motives for the planned series of attacks online
It is now known that Beran A. posted a confessional video online on February 16, which was intended for his family after his suicide attack in Dubai. In it, he explained the motives of the three young men to simultaneously carry out three acts of terrorism in the Arab world and thus a series of attacks that would cost the lives of police officers and soldiers. In an Arab country, "Sharia law should normally prevail", but "the Sharia laws" were being exchanged "for money", complained Beran A. in the video. This was "spitting on Islam."

So now, after ten months, you get it?

Werner Tomanek, Verteidiger von Beran A.

Bild: Zwefo

He and his two accomplices - the third in addition to Beran A. and Hasan E. has apparently still not been traced - had planned the series of attacks for IS "and for God, so that IS can come back". The police officers in Dubai are "the worst. They talk about Islam and Sharia law, but they legalize alcohol. (...) They go by Sharia law, but if they see someone drinking alcohol, they don't do anything. That's not Sharia law. That is completely kufar (infidel, note)," Beran A. explained in the video.

The 20-year-old had actually traveled to Dubai, but unlike Hasan E., he shied away from carrying out his terrorist intentions. He returned to Austria without having achieved anything.

Domestic proceedings against Hasan E. resumed
In the meantime, the domestic proceedings against Hasan E. are also being continued by the Vienna public prosecutor's office, which is conducting extensive investigations against Beran E.. Just a few days ago - on January 7, 2025 - the laptop and the data on it belonging to the detainee in Saudi Arabia were confiscated with court approval and the restoration and processing of any deleted data was ordered. Hasan E.'s laptop had been handed over by his older brother. The public prosecutor's office justifies this investigative step by stating that the data content is "essential for the investigation of the crimes in question."

Beran A.'s defense lawyer sees "multi-organ failure of ministries"
"Now, after ten months, you come to this conclusion?" said Werner Tomanek, Beran A's defense lawyer. He found it "detached from the specific facts of the case, it's not about whether this concerns a jihadist or a drug dealer" incomprehensible why the various leads on Hasan E. were not brought together and why his environment was not examined. According to Tomanek, there was a "functional multi-organ failure of three ministries involved". His client was "only a follower", the real danger had come from Hasan E., as proven by the seized chats.

In Tomanek's opinion, the case constellation in question is not suitable for calling for the monitoring of messenger services. Such calls are "yet another transparent attempt to enforce total surveillance." The constitutional protectors and law enforcement authorities could have "made progress with normal police work" in relation to Hasan E. "A blind man doesn't need a telescopic sight", says Tomanek, who is never at a loss for words, against allowing the police or state security to monitor Messenger.