Legal and Policy Framework - Recent Developments and Upcoming Reforms

Abstract

In Austria, the field of (de)radicalisation has recently been particularly dynamic. In 2020, a terror attack took place in Vienna when a single perpatrator killed four people and injured more than 20 others in the city centre. It was the first terror attack with connection to the terrorist militia Islamic State in Austria. It was an unprecendented event and it acted as a 'caesura' as incidents involving fatalities have been the rare exception in Austria.^[1]  After 9/11, jihadist terrorism and the terror militia Islamic State had become the primary target of institutions and legal amendments alike. The phenomenon of so-called foreign fighters had a particular sway for the way these amendments have evolved. According to number provided by the Austrian Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counter-Terrorism (BVT) by the end of 2019, 326 persons had left Austria to travel to Syria and Iraq to join the Islamic State or intended to do so. This is one of the highest per-capita shares of foreign fighters in Europe...