Austria managed to regain the trust of its partners' special services after the terrorist attack in Vienna, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said on Thursday
VIENNA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th November, 2020) Austria managed to regain the trust of its partners' special services after the terrorist attack in Vienna, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said on Thursday.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said after the Vienna attack that Austria's main anti-terrorism agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism, had to be reformed.
"Right now it was not easy to regain the trust of our partners' special services. What was especially important was the recognition on the part of the partner countries that Austria is openly and honestly making efforts to rebuild and restructure the special service - the Office for the Protection of the Constitution and Counterterrorism - in a way that meets the security requirements, including that of the partner intelligence services. The trust was regained, and as a result, we received a lot of information that helps in our investigation," Nehammer said.
On Tuesday, Austrian media reported, citing police sources, that the gunman behind the shooting attacks in Vienna had visited Slovakia in mid-July where he purchased ammunition. The spokesman for the prosecutor's office in Vienna Nina Bussek said that the prosecutor's office only found about this on the night of the terrorist attack.
Nehammer, responding to the accusations that the ministry did not provide the justice ministry the information on the militant's intention to buy ammunition in Slovakia on time, said it was a communication failure.
On Monday night, the Austrian capital of Vienna was subjected to series of gun attacks. As a result, five people died including the attacker, and 22 others were injured. Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said that the attacker was a supporter of Islamic State (terrorist group banned in Russia).
