Austria charges Imam six years after unlawful Operation Luxor raids

Austria charges Imam six years after unlawful Operation Luxor raids

Vienna — Six years on from Austria's largest peacetime police operation, a sweeping assault that targeted Muslim community leadership, institutions, and civil society across the country. An Imam has been charged from among Muslims whose homes were violently raided at dawn. The imam now faces politically motivated charges relating to his pro Palestine views.The trial will be held in Vienna.

It is not coincidental that the one case the state has chosen to pursue, out of the 70 raids conducted by Operation Luxor, centers on an imam whose crime, in substance, is holding anti-Zionist and anti-colonial political views. 

What is Operation Luxor? 

On 9 November 2020, nearly a thousand police officers violently raided over seventy Muslim homes, mosques, and community organisations across Austria dragging families from their beds at dawn, traumatising children, and destroying lives and livelihoods before a single charge was ever filed. CAGE documented these abuses and the lasting harm inflicted on survivors in its report [Op Lux Report, linked here]. Six years on, this single indictment is a belated attempt to rescue the reputations of the politicians and institutions behind Luxor by filing one charge at the most politically convenient moment. The Austrian government's systematic normalisation of the fight against so-called "political Islam" has created a climate in which the ongoing prosecution of Muslim communities passes without meaningful public challenge, allowing this case to proceed with minimal scrutiny or resistance.

The survivors of Operation Luxor including the Imam himself are at the forefront of challenging this grave injustice, refusing to allow the state to bury its abuses. We call for all charges against the Imam to be dropped, for the full recognition of his right to freedom of expression, and for an honest public reckoning with the lasting damage Operation Luxor has inflicted on Austria's Muslim community.

Nehal Abdalla, Coordinator of CAGE Austria, said: 

“Foreign state interests including those of Israel and Egypt have shaped Operation Luxor’s targets and its framing from the beginning. The Austrian state has acted, at least in part, as a proxy for foreign governments seeking to suppress political opposition abroad. The charges filed today are simply the next act of this state led persecution of Muslims.”

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