Tunisian migrant Mohamed H. was sentenced to life in a Linz court Monday after being found guilty of murdering an elderly Austrian couple because they supported the populist, anti-mass migration Freedom Party (FPÖ).
The trial of the 55-year-old Tunisian was expected to last several days but unexpectedly the entire process finished the day it began with the conviction and sentencing wrapping up on Monday, Kronen Zeitung reports.
The prosecutor in the case put forward that Mohamed H.’s motive for the crime after he admitted to committing the two murders, was a hate for Austrian society and specifically the fact that the elderly couple supported the anti-mass migration FPÖ.
The Tunisian, who had been living in Austria since 1989, has previously been arrested for animal cruelty following a complaint from a local FPÖ politician in 2012 and had allegedly blamed the populist party for all of the things going wrong in his life from that point on.
The man knew the elderly couple as he worked as a delivery driver and delivered groceries to them. In late June of last year during his regular deliveries, he hid a knife, a jerrycan, and a stick and approached the home of the couple.
He first strangled the 85-year-old woman to death, then used the knife and stick to kill her husband. Following the murder, the 55-year-old sprayed petrol around the house and lit it on fire. The bodies of the elderly couple were found shortly after.
The case also had an Islamic extremist element to it as the court heard that the Tunisian had praised Islamic State and endorsed terror attacks carried out by the group. The 55-year-old even praised terror leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in court.
Despite his praise for Islamic State, he was found not guilty of affiliation with a terror group.
The trail follows several other high-profile homicides committed by migrants including several murders in Germany such as that of 15-year-old Mia in Kandel, and student Maria Ladenburger in Freiburg.
The latest major case occurred earlier this month when 14-year-old Susanna F. of Mainz was murdered by 20-year-old asylum seeker Ali Bashar who fled to Iraq but was later apprehended and brought back to Germany after confessing to the murder while imprisoned by Kurdish forces.
According to a recently released Heritage Foundation study, over 1,000 individuals in Europe have been killed or injured as a result of Islamist asylum seeker violence between January 2014 and December 2017.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.