If the perpetrator had been a native non-Muslim Austrian who committed gross negligent homicide, do you think he would have been immediately released? Maybe he would have been. But it’s also possible that Austrian authorities were — as always — afraid of appearing “Islamophobic.”
“Left cuddle justice? Syrian death racer on the loose again,” translated from “Linke Kuschel-Justiz? Syrischer Todes-Raser wieder auf freiem Fuß,” Unzensuriet, September 15, 2022 (thanks to Medforth):
A 26-year-old Syrian citizen who is said to have caused a fatal accident in Vienna last Sunday was surprisingly released from custody. A “judicial scandal” is what many think, but the court sees “no grounds for imprisonment.”
Investigation into “gross negligent homicide”
The Syrian, who lives in Belgium, is irreproachable, according to the court’s reasoning. Austria has an “excellent legal assistance agreement” with the EU state, which is why the 26-year-old can return to his home country of Belgium and wait for the progress of the proceedings there, the spokeswoman for the regional court, Christina Salzborn, told the newspaper oe24. This person will continue to be investigated on suspicion of “grossly negligent homicide” under Section 81 of the Criminal Code.
48-year-old woman fatally injured
In the comments on social media, there is talk of “left-wing cuddle justice.” It is feared that the Syrian could now go into hiding and then no longer be held responsible.
The accident happened on Sunday around 7:45 p.m. at the Schottenring-Wipplinger Straße intersection. The Syrian was driving along the Ring in a powerful Mercedes when he came to the red light at the Vienna Stock Exchange. The 26-year-old ignored the stop signal, drove across the intersection and crashed into the car of a 48-year-old, who was fatally injured. Both he and the driver of the BMW denied that he was driving a street race against a BMW, as the police and witnesses had initially accused him of.
The court saw no risk of absconding in the case of a Belgian Syrian
However, the accident was videotaped by a subsequent driver. Its evaluation, which is still ongoing, will be decisive. In Austrian case law, three facts are decisive for pre-trial detention after a potential criminal offence: the risk of absconding, for example in the case of foreigners, the risk of committing the crime again, and the risk of collusion and collusion. The court obviously found none of the three reasons to keep the man in custody.
