New Anti-Terrorism Policy Following Vienna Attack

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Austria’s Cabinet agreed on a wide range of anti-terrorism measures meant to plug perceived security flaws identified after a deadly attack by an Islamic extremist in Vienna last week.

The proposals include the ability to keep individuals convicted of terror offenses behind bars for life, electronic surveillance of people convicted of terror-related offenses upon release and criminalizing religiously motivated political extremism.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said the measures, which will be brought before parliament in December for a vote, take a two-pronged approach, targeting both terror suspects and also the ideology that drives them.

“We will create a criminal offense called ‘political Islam’ in order to be able to take action against those who are not terrorists themselves, but who create the breeding ground for them,” Kurz tweeted.

Four people were killed in the Nov. 2 attack, and the gunman also died. 20 others, including a police officer, were wounded. The attacker was identified as a dual national of Austria and North Macedonia who had a previous conviction for trying to join the Islamic State group in Syria and had been given early release in December.

Included in the measures is a proposal to make it possible to strip people of Austrian citizenship if they are convicted of terror-related offenses, according to federalnewsnetwork.com.