German police raid homes of suspected jihadists linked to deadly Vienna shooting

German federal police have raided the homes of two suspected jihadists over allegations they'd failed to report planned offenses by Kujtim Fejzullai before he killed four in a deadly shooting in Vienna last November.

The search warrants were executed on properties lived-in by Kosovan national Blinor S. and German citizen Drilon G., the country’s Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.

Special forces working for the Germany federal police searched the homes, alongside the Federal Criminal Police Office in Osnabrück and Kassel, after the two individuals were accused of failing to report planned criminal offenses.

The charges relate to their alleged association with Islamist terrorist Kujtim Fejzullai, who murdered four people and injured 23, including seven critically, before being shot dead by police in Vienna, Austria on November 2, 2020. Fejzullai was later identified as being an Islamic State supporter and the group claimed responsibility for the shooting, declaring that he had acted as a “soldier of the caliphate.”

Authorities claim that Blinor S. and Drilon G. had both pursued “radical Islamic sentiments” and maintained “close contact” with the Vienna shooter on social media for a significant time before he committed the terrorist attack. The duo are alleged to have accompanied Fejzullai to Vienna during a trip in July 2020, staying with him and other individuals who shared similar radical ideologies.

After failing to report the offenses being planned by Fejzullai, the pair tried to “disguise their connections” by deleting conversations they’d had on their mobiles and their social media profiles, according to the Federal Prosecutor’s Office.

Officials claim the accused have “accepted” they failed to inform authorities “as the law requires” about Fejzullai expressing “his intentions to attack,” in violation of Section 138 of the German Criminal Code. The prosecutor’s statement did not say when the duo would be arraigned in court.

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