Terror suspects charged in Austria
VIENNA- Austria has arrested three people linked to al Qaeda who posted an video message on the Internet threatening attacks against Austria and Germany, Interior Minister Guenther Platter said on Wednesday.
The trio are suspected of producing the video, which demanded German and Austrian soldiers leave Afghanistan, but in electronic surveillance over several months police found no concrete indications that attacks were in the offing, he said.
"Austria was not under threat of an attack at any time," Platter told a news conference. "We could determine that based on the actions of the three."
The arrests came a week after Germany said it foiled an Islamist militant plan to carry out "massive bomb attacks" on U.S. installations in the country. Germany arrested three men.
Platter said he knew of no links between the German and the Austrian suspects, but said the surveillance had produced evidence the Austrians had contacts to al Qaeda.
"The technical (surveillance) measures of the last months have shown that the persons were in touch with the terror network al Qaeda," he said, but he declined to elaborate on how or with whom contacts had been made.
The three suspects, arrested in Vienna by anti-terror police, are a 20-year-old man and his 21-year-old wife and another man of 26. All are second-generation immigrants from Arab countries and held Austrian passports, Platter said.
Erich Buxbaum, the Interior Ministry's head of public security, told reporters he expected no further arrests.
In the video message, posted in March, the group called on Germany and Austria to withdraw their troops from Afghanistan to prevent attacks on the two countries.
A speaker in the video said Austria, reliant on tourism for an important part of its revenue, would be damaged if it were targeted by militants, and asked why Germany would risk its economic interests to help U.S. President George W. Bush.
Austria had four military officers in Afghanistan at the time the video was posted.
The tape also featured a portion of an old video of al Qaeda's deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahri.