An Afghan migrant threatened the Austrian Chancellor with beheading

The Austrian public discourse on Islamist terrorism seems to have stirred up emotions in certain groups, as suggested by a report in the Kronen Zeitung that a 28-year-old Afghan man threatened Chancellor Karl Nehammer with an attack on his Instagram page.

The Afghan man wrote:
“Change, or I will cut off your head. I will go to the parliament and kill you.”

The man was originally arrested for other violent crimes, specifically for assault in Telfs, Tyrol. Following this, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution began an investigation in close cooperation with regional police units, uncovering the threat against the Chancellor. The investigators were unable to make sense of his explanation that the message was written by the devil.

The Afghan man arrived in Austria in 2015. His asylum application was initially rejected by the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum, but after an appeal, the Federal Administrative Court eventually granted him asylum. However, his subsidiary protection status was later revoked. He claims to be a Christian and not a Muslim in his message, but the Ministry of the Interior states that this is not true.