Austria: Death threats on the internet after a woman burned the Quran – Afghan refugee denies the accusation in court

The trial of an Afghan man who allegedly glorified the Taliban on social media and called for the murder of a female doctor in the USA, which was adjourned at the beginning of July, was continued on Thursday at the Wels Regional Court. The man, who was arrested by the special Cobra unit at the end of September 2020, had already admitted to glorifying the Taliban on the first day of the trial, but denied calling for the murder.

The most serious offence, attempted murder, which carries a sentence of ten to 20 years or life imprisonment, is not considered to have been committed by the accused. This was directed against the life of an alleged female doctor in the USA. After the woman burned the Koran, according to a video, the suspect allegedly called on the internet to kill her. He also allegedly threatened her.

The call to kill was said to be meant so that “she would be punished by Allah”. The woman had “made a mistake” by burning the Koran, he had been “angry and aggressive”, the accused repeated himself on Thursday. He had recorded two videos, but had not uploaded them to his Facebook account. He claims to have deleted his profile altogether. On the first day of the trial, these statements could not be clearly clarified as to their accuracy. The said recordings allegedly went viral two days after the woman had already apologised for her actions.On Thursday, the expert now presented his supplementary IT research. The video calls of the accused might have been downloaded live by a follower and put on a “fake account”, according to the expert’s explanation. “In all probability, the Facebook account was used by an unknown third party,” he said, confirming the accused’s statements. After evaluating the data carriers – his two mobile phones and a tablet – “no activities” of the 31-year-old Afghan on that account were recognisable, he explained.

He said he was “ashamed” of personal video messages in which he had carried out propaganda for the Taliban, incited against infidels and advocated suicide and explosive attacks from 2017 to 2020. He apologised again and said he knew “I had made mistakes”. Since 2020, he had no longer spread any messages.