Like Kreiner earlier in an interview with the WHAT explained, the Graz public prosecutor’s office had applied for an arrest order to be issued with regard to Turpal I. The basis for this is a separate investigation into terrorist financing, whereby the allegation relates to monetary donations from the 32-year-old’s parents.
“Claims that do not match”
However, the relevant investigation has been running since 2015 and is therefore older than the one that has been in the main negotiation stage in Vienna for almost two weeks, said Kreiner. In addition, the alleged donations of money were discussed several times in the ongoing process and a terrorist context was not proven. “The arrest order was justified with allegations that do not match the results of the preliminary investigation or the main hearing,” emphasized Kreiner.
The public prosecutor had “picked out” the transfers, which had no terrorist background, in order to bring his client back into custody in a constructive manner, after he was forced out of custody last May after the expiry of the two-year pretrial detention period Prison had to be released.
Anyway: The arrest order was approved last Thursday and carried out in Vienna, how The standard reported on the weekend. On Saturday, however, a decision had to be made after 48 hours whether Turpal I would be taken into custody. The Graz Regional Court was responsible for this.
The application was rejected, whereby the so-called specialty principle was primarily decisive, as court spokeswoman Schwarz explained. Turpal I was arrested in Belarus with a European arrest warrant and extradited to the Austrian judiciary – the extradition request, however, probably did not contain the allegation of terrorist financing.
The ongoing terror process
Turpal I is currently facing a jury trial in Vienna because he is said to have traveled to Syria in 2013, joined a terrorist group in a leading position and committed or ordered atrocities under the name of Abu Aische in the name of IS.
According to the indictment, he is said to have ordered the shooting of residents of a high-rise building and three women captured as slaves in the northern Syrian city of Hraytan, and in a small town north of Aleppo he is said to have had at least seven Shiites’ heads cut off with knives.
The 32-year-old denies this, presented himself in court as a victim of confusion and claimed that he searched for the grave of his brother-in-law in Syria, who, according to the intelligence of the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, was an IS fighter, found it and subsequently visited it several times.
Turpal I. – before his turn to the IS, multiple state champion in Taekwondo – was in custody since April 24, 2019. After the expiry of his detention, which was limited to two years, he had to be released for legal reasons, as it had not been possible to open a main hearing against the terror suspect on the basis of a legally binding indictment.
On May 5, the 32-year-old was able to leave prison. The process will continue next Monday, when Turpal I – as on the previous days of the negotiation – will appear at large again, unlike Mirsad O. and a second foreign terrorist fighter who has been in custody since August 2019 .
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