Austria wants to keep people convicted of terrorism in jail after serving their sentences as long as they do not part with their extremist ideas.
This is evident from a package of plans that the government presented more than a week after the fatal terror attack in Vienna
If mentally disturbed criminals can be imprisoned for life because they pose a danger, terrorists can also be imprisoned for life,” Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said at a news conference.
Former prisoners believed to be a terrorist risk may be required to wear an ankle bracelet or other electronic device so that they can be monitored. It should also be possible to revoke the nationality or driving license of people who could be a potential danger. Gun laws are also becoming stricter.
Austria had more than three hundred so-called foreign terrorist fighters, according to Kurz. About half are still in war zones or have died, but the rest have returned. These people are “ticking time bombs,” Kurz said. He has already announced stricter measures against Islamists.
The plans of the conservative-green coalition have not yet been drafted into a bill.
In the attack in Vienna on Monday last week, a jihadist gunman in Vienna’s historic city centre killed four people and injured 20 others. He had Austrian and North Macedonian citizenship.