Austria Tries 15-Year-Old ’Terror’ Suspect

Local Editor

A 15-year-old Austrian schoolboy with alleged ties to Takfiri extremists and accused of intending to bomb a Vienna train station went on trial Tuesday facing up to five years in prison.

The defendant, named only as Mertkan G., was arrested in October 2014 when he was 14 and allegedly had contact with supporters of "ISIL" and al-Qaeda, the court in his hometown Sankt-Poelten said.

"In addition he is suspected of obtaining instructions on how to make an explosive device from an al-Qaeda website... in order to carry out an attack in Vienna," the court 70 kilometers [45 mile] west of the Austrian capital said.

According to the charge sheet, the teenager, who emigrated from Turkey in 2007, wanted to carry out the attack before travelling to join the fighting in Syria and was in contact with "ISIL" recruiters in Vienna.

Further, police had said at the time of the arrest that the boy made "concrete enquiries about buying ingredients" for a bomb and "planned to explode the devices in public places, such as the Vienna Westbahnhof," a major train station.

His lawyer Rudolf Mayer declared that his client had only been "playing with the idea" of making a bomb. He had been in custody since January after breaking the terms of his parole.

Unconfirmed press reports said that "ISIL" Takfiri militants had offered to pay him 25,000 euros [$27,250] if he managed to carry out the attack.

In common with other European countries, Austria had seen a steady flow of people leaving or attempting to leave the country in order to join "ISIL" militants in Syria and Iraq.

According to the Austrian interior ministry, more than 200 had done so, including some women and minors. Around 70 had since returned, several of whom were in custody awaiting trial.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team