“Great findings” about the Vienna attack

In the course of the work-up, they did not “find the smoking gun”, but the findings were “blatant enough”, said Ingeborg Zerbes, the head of the commission. The omissions already identified in a preliminary report before Christmas should come out even more clearly in the final report, Zerbes indicated. The Viennese criminal lawyer said that there were “mistakes by BVT and LVT” in terms of personnel, technology, organization and structure.

In its investigation of the causes, the commission’s efforts to shed light on the internal “reporting culture”, which is obviously in need of improvement, “put obstacles in the way”, said Zerbes. The exact flow of information from the BVT to the General Directorate for Public Safety could not be clarified.

IS supporters could “disappear from the radar”

Interior Minister Karl Nehammer (ÖVP) and Justice Minister Alma Zadic (Greens) set up the commission soon after the terrorist attack in downtown Vienna to investigate any failures by the authorities in advance of the attack. In an interim report shortly before Christmas, the commission highlighted serious breakdowns on the part of the constitution protection. The communication between the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter Terrorism (BVT) and the Vienna State Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter Terrorism (LVT) was poor, it said.

Accordingly, neither the risk assessment of the later assassin nor any countermeasures were discussed by the authorities, so that the 20-year-old disappeared from the radar of the constitutional protectors, but also the judiciary, after his early release from prison for terrorist organization. Acting too leisurely with regard to the risk potential of the young IS supporter and a lack of information, especially to the public prosecutor and higher-level authorities, were criticized.

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