A 26-year-old Syrian citizen who allegedly caused a fatal accident in Vienna last Sunday was surprisingly released from custody. A “judicial scandal” according to many, but the court sees “no grounds for detention”.
The Syrian, who lives in Belgium, is blameless, the court argued. Austria has an “excellent legal assistance agreement” with the EU state, which is why the 26-year-old may return to his Belgian home and await the progress of the proceedings there, the spokeswoman of the regional court, Christina Salzborn, told the newspaper oe24. The person is still being investigated on suspicion of “grossly negligent homicide” under section 81 of the Criminal Code.
In the comments on social media, there is talk of “left-wing cuddle justice”. People fear that the Syrian could now go into hiding and then no longer be held responsible.
The accident happened on Sunday at around 7.45 pm at the junction of Schottenring and Wipplinger Street. The Syrian was driving a high-horsepower Mercedes along the Ring when he came to the red light near the Vienna Stock Exchange. The 26-year-old ignored the stop signal, drove through the intersection and crashed into the car of a 48-year-old woman, who was fatally injured. Both he and the driver of the BMW denied that he was street racing against a BMW, as the police and witnesses had initially accused him of doing.
However, the accident was recorded on video by a following driver. The evaluation of the video, which is still ongoing, will be decisive. In Austrian jurisprudence, three facts are decisive for detention pending trial after a potential criminal offence: risk of absconding, for example in the case of foreigners, risk of reoffending, and risk of premeditation and collusion. The court obviously did not find any of the three reasons decisive to keep the man in pre-trial detention.