After the Halloween riots in Linz, a 21-year-old Syrian and a 19-year-old Spaniard were arrested at the end of December. Charges have already been brought against the older man. He is in custody. The young people arrested on Tuesday are a 16-year-old Iraqi man entitled to subsidiary protection and his girlfriend, a 15-year-old Thai schoolgirl and a 15-year-old Afghan asylum seeker. The two boys were already known to the police, the girl has a criminal record. All three live in Linz.
Halloween riots in Linz
The three suspects are charged with “active and leading participation in the violent riots on Halloween night,” police said. The day before, they are said to have procured an arsenal of pyrotechnics in the Czech Republic, especially category 3 and 4 fireworks. They are likely to have thrown these at police officers on Halloween evening – masked with balaclavas. They are also said to have handed out firecrackers to the crowd and encouraged other people to throw them in the direction of law enforcement officers as well.
The trio were arrested on Tuesday and have since been transferred to the prison. The accused only admit to having procured firecrackers, they deny everything else.
“We will continue to act with full force against such crimes and suspects,” Pilsl clarified. You don’t want to have “such conditions in Upper Austria anymore”. Youth contact officials had significant success in clarifying the matter. Last year, “around 1,000 hours of service were planned for eight colleagues,” according to the state police director. “This year we will increase to around 2,000 hours,” he announced. It has been seen that this youth contact work is “very, very important” for the police, and that it is also about prevention.
On Halloween night, firecrackers were set off on the country road and firecrackers, bottles and stones were thrown at passers-by, police officers and the tram overhead line. 129 people were reported.
(Those: APA)
