Deradicalization Association wants more money – wien.ORF.at

The Zerbes Commissiom made suggestions for improvement in the judicial area in dealing with extremist offenders. The work of deradicalization should be better anchored structurally and better financially supported. Deradicalization requires professionalization, a legal framework and sufficient resources, can be found in the final report.

But currently not even work is paid on the instructions of a court, said Moussa Al-Hassa Diaw from the NGO “DERAD” to “Radio Wien”. And: “In addition to the conversations with the people themselves, the work also includes an analysis of the environment, research, research in social media, conversations with other people who come from the environment of the people to be deradicalized. And this work is not paid, for example, it takes place on a voluntary basis ”.

Association for more cooperation between all parties involved

The entire administrative work is also voluntary, and the further and advanced training courses are not paid for, even if this is necessary for the work of deradicalization, said Diaw. The Zerbes Commission takes a similar view and suggests more money for the administration and organization of the association. There should also be no separate rules for every prison and the cases should not be assessed uniformly according to defined criteria.

Diaw would like more cooperation from all involved. “It would be really good to work together as partners, to exchange ideas, in order to get a better overall picture, otherwise there will continue to be situations where people who are actually dangerous for this society can continue their activities,” says Diaw.

For the future, the Islamist researcher hopes that the Commission’s proposals will also be implemented, because everyone’s safety is at stake. But that is a political decision. “We see that the situation has not improved, but has remained the same and has in some cases got worse,” appealed Diaw.

Zerbes: “gathering” knowledge

With regard to the judiciary, according to the commission, prior to the conditional release of extremist offenders from prison, it must be guaranteed that “all information that is available about the perpetrator from his act, but also from the execution”, is made available to the court , which decides on the conditional release.

Prison guards, probation officers and employees of deradicalization associations who had to do with a perpetrator in prison should collect their respective knowledge “in order to enable the court to issue the correct instructions in specific cases,” said Ingeborg Zerbes, chairwoman of the investigative commission. Case conferences of this kind prior to release from prison – with the involvement of officials from the relevant LVT – could “not exclude, but reduce” a risk emanating from dangerous persons.

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